comment #1

BurmaShave says ...

I keep forgetting Jason Clarke is in this. He was the shit as Tommy Caffee I hope he makes his mark in film.

comment #2

BurmaShave says ...

Also I'm reading Burroughs' book right in anticipation of the opening, so far it's sensational, I'd recommend it as a must read companion piece to anyone.

comment #3

Ulysses says ...

I'm curious to see Giovanni Ribisi playing a Canadian.

comment #4

moneymouth77 says ...

So negative... I think a lot of people will 'get it', and will see this over rubbish like Transformers 2... now is the season of the intelligent summer blockbuster, and there are more than a few to look forward to...

comment #5

BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

Can't wait. Even though I defend trash like Transformers, I'd far rather see proper grown-up blockbusters like Public Enemies dominating the summer. It's an old-fashioned type of blockbuster in a way, with the marketing campaign built almost entirely around the star. On the subway posters they don't even mention Bale - just a big photo of Depp with a gun and a grin. Hope it works, because I'd love to see more prestige blockbusters in summer and not just shoehorned into awards season.

comment #6

Breedlove says ...

"I'm curious to see Giovanni Ribisi play a Canadien."

Greatest comment ever. What the fuck are you talking about? I assume that was a joke.

I think for most of us who are excited to see this movie, it's mainly to see how Giovanni Ribisi plays Canadien.

Seriously though, just cannot wait. Of course this is amazing. Why in the world would it not be?

comment #7

btwnproductions says ...

More "captivating, beautifully composed and freshly conceived" than Goodfellas?

comment #8

Chase Kahn says ...

Yeah, I think there have been a hell of a lot of good gangster films between 1967 and 2009. Certainly most of them better than "Bonnie and Clyde" -- that's an odd statement.

I'm pumped, though -- glad you loved it.

comment #9

Mark says ...

It's more a pretentious statement than odd. a transparent attempt to get in some advertising blurb. though his excitement appears genuine and that's good news for all.

comment #10

ImNotPaulAvery says ...

Amazing.

comment #11

BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

I think he means "gangster" in the Al Capone mold. I guess the likes of Goodfellas and The Godfather could be called "mob/mafia" movies.

comment #12

Jeffrey Wells says ...

My calling Public Enemies "the most captivating, beautifully composed and freshly conceived gangster movie since Bonnie and Clyde" seems, says an HE reader, like a "transparent attempt to get in some advertising blurb"? No, it isn't that. Another reader expresses doubt if it's "more captivating, beautifully composed and freshly conceived than Goodfellas." Yes, it is that.

Let me explain.

Gangster-movie-wise, Bonnie and Clyde introduced some major new concepts in 1967. It simultaneously delivered a mid '60s youth-culture, up-the-establishment attitude while using quaint 1930s period trappings and details (with the exception of Warren Beatty's modified Rodeo Drive haircut) and occasional art-movie flourishes. It brought the French New Wave, in a sense, to Depression-era Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, etc.

Public Enemies is similarly out there with a radical use of razor-sharp, high-def digital widescreen photography (this is going to be one hell of a Bluray) that totally says "not the early 1930s!" and at the same time says "actually, this is the real early 1930s without the Jimmy Cagney-Paul Muni-Edward G., Robinson rat-a-tat-tat Pennies From Heaven atmosphere and embroidery you've been conditioned to expect."

Add to this the use of shadowy and sometimes just plain dark and inky Gordon Willis-y compositions from cinematographer Dante Spinotti and deliberately muttered dialogue (half of which I personally couldn't hear, which was totally cool).

The combined effect allows audiences to see and experience the early 1930s in a way that is simultaneously "right now" and "back then."

It's simultaneously an art-movie that says "fuck the rubes if they can't take a joke," a shoot-em-up bank robbery gutpuncher and hell-raiser, a moving and deliciously off-the-ground romantic love story between Johnny Depp's John Dillinger and Marion Cotillard's Billie Frechette as well as a heavy bromance between Mann and Dillinger.

It's really a fresh package-and-a-half. It's so "elevated" and so unconcerned with dumb-shit Transformer taste buds that it's some kind of bold and beautiful.

Due respect to Martin Scorsese but Goodfellas wasn't as fresh and "whoa" as this. It more or less just spritzed up and recycled the ethnically authentic Mean Streets goombah neighborhood culture and applied it to a rise-and-fall of northeastern mob culture arc from the '50s to the '80s with a lot of cinematic pizazz and that great narration from Ray Liotta and all those great performances from Pesci, Sorvino and so on.

Goodfellas, to sum up, was very cool and thrilling but Public Enemies is more exciting in a Bonnie and Clyde sense. That's what I was trying to say, and have now said.

comment #13

corey3rd says ...

Ben Lyons demands to know why you aren't next to Mann making a goofy face?

comment #14

Gaydos says ...

Like a reworked scene from Irwin Shaw's "Bury the Dead," I picture the ghosts of dozens of screenwriters of terrific gangster movies of yesteryear converging at Matsuhisa and lecturing the gathered directors, agents and studio executives, et al on how they must change their ways or face the wrath of those departed WGA members who toiled so hard to entertain and enlighten us. With scripts.

comment #15

Ulysses says ...

Breedlove, in Public Enemies, Giovanni Ribisi plays the gangster Alvin Karpis, who was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, making him a "Canadian" not a "Canadien". I dunno if he was a hockey fan or not.

Of course it was a joke.

comment #16

iamjoe says ...

Thanks you, Jeff. I really didn't think I could be in any greater anticipation for PE. I'm evangilizing Mann and his movies, this genre, Chicago and all the talent involved to my gf as I type this on the iPhone while she looks on with both a little excitement and fear.

comment #17

Dignan says ...

"The schmucks will go "meh" and the people who are hip enough to understand what this movie is doing/has done will retire to tens of thousands of nearby cafes and talk it over for at least a couple of hours."

That's right because anyone who disagrees with you just didn't get it. Like the people who didn't find In the Valley of Elah "an epic-level achievement," clearly obliviously philistines, right Jeff?

Hollywood Reporter just "meh'ed" the film to death:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/public-enemies-film-review-1003987042.story

You can expect LOTS more of these sorts of reviews.