Not often we write up release-date news but not often––now the better part of eight years, actually––Michael Mann releases a feature. Ferrari, one of 2023’s utmost-anticipated, is now confirmed for a North American release from Neon (after a likely Venice debut), and––to perfectly dovetail with telling your aunt and uncle about the levels of unreality Mann conjured with digital images in Miami Vice, Public Enemies, and Blackhat––on Christmas day.
There’s all the stuff we might say about how long Michael Mann’s hoped to make this film, how long we’ve waited for any new film (the Tokyo Vice pilot is nice but doesn’t count), or how great it is having Adam Driver get Ferrari (ahem) over the finish line. I’d rather defer to cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt telling me the goal was to have audiences “feeling like they’re in this machine. This machine is rattling around and smells like gasoline and there’s oil and rocks kicking up on the faces. A lot of what we were trying to do was bring the frenzied energy of racing––what these drivers experienced––onto the screen and bring the audience right into the car with them.” Start your engines.