Ferrari (2023)

Direction: Michael Mann
Country: USA

The accomplished director Michael Mann, known for films like The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Collateral (2004), and Ali (2001), brings his expertise to this biographical sports drama centered around Enzo Ferrari, the renowned Italian entrepreneur and founder of the Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team. Written by Troy Kennedy Martin, based on the biopic Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine by journalist Brock Yates, the film delves into Enzo’s business challenges, his tumultuous relationship with wife and business associate Laura Domenica Garello, his solace found in mistress Lina Lardi and their son, and his drivers of choice - in particular Alfonso de Portago. 

Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz give a pair of excellent performances as husband and wife, contributing considerably to the relative success of a film that revealed to be less exciting than initially expected. There are some spectacular racing sequences but the film misses greater opportunities to shine and ultimately wobbles in its struggle to hold our interest. Essentially, the emotions are subdued, compromising the film’s provocative intents. Having said that, and despite some occasional dragging pace, the narrative follows logically, and the facts are delivered with no major flaws or startles.

As a result, half the audience will gasp at the drama, while the the other half - the auto racing enthusiasts - may seize the moment to deepen their historic background on Ferrari team and its founder.

White Noise (2023)

Direction: Noah Baumbach
Country: USA 

In White Noise, Oscar-winning writer-director Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha, 2012; Marriage Story, 2019) probes a different style, attempting to charm with adventure, crime thriller, and family comedy. The outcome of his first-ever adaptation is too theoretical and uneven to subsist. With Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name in mind, and showcasing an excellent pair of actors like Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, Baumbach couldn’t quite handle the odd material. The course of events is perhaps excessively elaborated and the dramatic stakes feel rather low.  

The story, set in the 1980s, focuses on the Gladneys and how they react to a hazardous cloud of deadly chemicals, the fear of death (who thought of Woody Allen?), and the physical and psychological effects of an experimental drug not listed in the pharmacies. Jack (Driver) is a Nazism expert and professor who enjoys knotty chatting with his Elvis-devotee fellow, Murray Siskind (Don Cheadle); Babette (Gerwig), who normally reveals and confides, is visibly depressed as she goes through a difficult phase marked by insecurity and obscurity.

With its derivative style and witless plot-twists, the film aspires to be grandiose, comprehensive, and clever but falls flat. Baumbach quickly loses control of his film and often struggles to keep the story afloat, leaving us on the sidelines. White Noise is a disjointed and deliberately delirious monument, whose ambition is overburdened with messed-up ideas and genres, and whose required excitement becomes a tricky thing to pull off. In the end, this offbeat journey has no discernible point, and the only thing one can enjoy is the actors’ qualified performances.

House of Gucci (2021)

Direction: Ridley Scott
Country: USA

2021 has been a busy year for the acclaimed English director Ridley Scott (Alien; Blade Runner). On the heels of the medieval conspiracies and the fierce battles of The Last Duel, he makes a u-turn into the fashion world with House of Gucci, a biographical portrayal of the Gucci family, starring Adam Driver, Lady Gaga, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Jared Leto. Despite the marvelous cast, a likable male central character and the elegant outfits, there's something wrong in the cinematic design of House of Gucci, whose script, adapted from the 2000 book by Sara Gay Forden by Becky Johnston and Roberto Bentivegna, is partially accountable for the infrequent pleasures and major disappointments found. After a promising start, the narrative flow becomes crippled by pace and inarticulation. 

Gucci is a brand recognized and admired around the world, and Maurizio (Driver), a demure yet distinctively smart member of this Italian family, happens to be humbler than his actor father, Rodolfo (Irons), more discreet than his cunning and domineering uncle Aldo (Pacino) and more empathetic than the latter’s silly son, Paolo (an unrecognizable Leto). The story begins with the romance and consequent marriage between Maurizio and Patrizia Reggiani (Gaga), a woman from a lower class whose inordinate ambition becomes an obstacle in her marriage. 

Rarely as playful or fluid as it hopes, the film declines instead with pacing fluctuations in its middle section - when it mostly relies on Paolo’s idiocy and excessive Italian-accented speech to amuse - and an unemotional conclusion that definitely fails to elevate the account into something satisfying. Scott is heedless in his leadership, seeming unable to point out the best direction to the members of the cast, from which only Driver and Pacino stand out. House of Gucci is unlikely to gain any traction, even among those interested in the story of the family.