In All Candor
I’m feeling a certain hesitancy about the fate of Public Enemies because of what I heard from a couple of critics after last Thursday night’s screening. (Others felt it was brilliant, which is also my view.) Like I said before, the critics and moviegoers who like their meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans are going to have problems with it. Public Enemies is a first-rate cops and robbers 1930s time-trip highdef-video art movie, but it ain’t meatloaf and it sure as hell ain’t McDonald’s. It’s a dish of almond praline semifreddo with grappa-poached apricots. Yes — a high falutin’ dessert, as in scrumptious. And then there’s that ending.
N.Y. Times reporter Brooks Barnes continued the food analogy in a recently-posted weekend box-office story, to wit: “People complain about Hollywood’s tendency to be unadventurous with its big-money titles, but the moviegoing masses clearly get the most excited when they are not being surprised. In other words, the multiplex really rocks when movies are served up the McDonalds way: predictably and comfortably.”
In my experience, I’ve been in way too many film arguments that ended with long-lasting bitterness and recrimination thanks to someone using food metaphors. I think this has something to do with the fact that many very serious film buffs are suspicious of haute cuisine.
Also, did you mean to compare this movie to a dessert, and then pit it against a full meal? Because some would interpret that as a bit of a backhanded compliment.
Jeff obviously hasn’t tried McDonald’s new McSemifreddo. Now available with Poach-O-Grappa Apricots.
But would you trust anyone’s opinion of an almond praline semifreddo with grappa-poached apricots if they called it “high falutin’” while they ate it?
Don’t worry Jeff – I think it’ll do just fine. Maybe not a huge opening, but it’ll do steady business for weeks. Most guys are in, and don’t underestimate Johnny Depp’s abilities to make it much easier for us to drag our significant others with us.
Gotta love the message between the lines – “If you don’t like it, you’re just unedjamacated”
For someone who writes so much about film, you really do have problems understanding the basic tenets of art, one of which is:
Film is subjective.
Film is subjective
Film is subjective
Film is subjective. But if you don’t like Michael Mann, its probably because you’re unedjamacated.
I’m pretty sure a Michael Mann film doesn’t resemble a fancy dessert like that. Sounds like a Nora Ephron film.
Michael Mann would be scotch and steak if he was a meal.
Perhaps I needlessly confused matters by using the analogy of a gourmet dessert rather than a tasty gourmet entree. I only meant to imply that for me the movie has a rich and delicious flavor, almost in a sugar-high sense. The point is that Public Enemies was prepared by a sophisticated and highly cultivated chef, and is meant to be savored by audiences who know and can appreciate the difference between first-rate haute cuisine and meat loaf/McDonalds. Most people prefer McDonalds — I get that, Brooks Barnes gets that — which is why I began to feel a little worried after catching it and talking with those two critics. Public Enemies is in no way an alien space movie, mind. It feels pretty damn comfortable and middle American all the way through, but it’s playing its own particular tune in a very particular Michael Mann-ish way. That means it’s not Top 40. The Michael Bay crowd may not want to get up and dance. Oh God, now I’ve switched from a food to a music metaphor but you know what I mean.
I carry almond praline semifreddo with grappa-poached apricots around in my pocket so that I can have it at McDonald’s or wherever I want, but those fuckers will never give me a spoon.
“Michael Mann would be scotch and steak if he was a meal.”
A pancake house? I was hoping for a steak and a shot and a beer.
I like my Transformers with fava beans and a nice Chianti.
Most of the reviews I’ve read of “Public Enemies” have complained about the film not being emotionally involving enough. Which I think is a cliched criticism of Mann, Kubrick, and Malick films. I’m sick of hearing/reading it.
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