Page 14 - aruba-today-20231220

A14 PEOPLE / ARTS
Wednesday 20 december 2023
Auto pioneer Enzo Ferrari gets a solid biopic but it doesn’t make

the heart race

By MARK KENNEDY seems most vulnerable
AP Entertainment Writer alone in the crypt of his son.
Napoleon Bonaparte. Outside, he screams things
Leonard Bernstein. Willy like “I must have total con-
Wonka. Aquaman there trol” and demands his driv-
are a ton of Guy Movie He- ers have “deadly passion.”
roes out there as 2023 ends. The movie tends to lose it-
And yet up zooms another self maybe fetishize Italian
in “Ferrari.” artistry: tailored shirts, foun-
Director Michael Mann tain pens, curving exhaust
has put his stylish spotlight manifolds, cappuccino
on yet one more stoic, cups and the gloriousness
brilliant and broken uber- of Italy’s cobble-street cit-
masculine dudes, Enzo Fer- ies.
rari. The movie is set during Over it all hangs loss sons,
a turbulent few months in brothers and drivers die so
1957 when the Italian auto- that fresh deaths are al-
maker’s private and profes- most run-of-the-mill. Ferrari
sional lives threatened to doesn’t miss a beat when
careen out of control. he loses a key employee;
It’s a solid vehicle but it will he hires another even be-
leave you, well, unmoved. fore the body is cold. “We
“Ferrari” has excellent work all know that death is near-
by Adam Driver as Ferrari, This image released by Neon shows Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari in a scene from “Ferrari.” by,” he says.
aged up two decades Associated Press But the viewer is not so cal-
with grey at his temple, cret son. Maserati he can fill orders ways, a domestic drama lous and a horrific event
sunglasses clamped to his Laura is played by Pené- and everything is buono. If and also some kinetic, su- during the big race un-
head at all times and a lope Cruz, whose grief is not, disastro. perb race scenes, with moors the movie. The end
frosty demeanor. profound, her eyes heavy Most of Mann’s toolkit is thick metal gears scraping, drifts off unresolved and
When we meet him, Ferrari and her gait plodding, here slick and moody cam- engines roaring and brave tragically rerouted, it’s en-
is at a crossroads. He needs possibly overacting. Laura erawork, a poetic surround- goggle-wearing drivers risk- gine broken. Failure has
to ramp up production knows her husband is a ing and heightened use of ing their necks at 130 mph. been snatched from the
and sell hundreds of cars a cad but the rule is he must music, even the car porn of Ferrari himself is on the side- jaws of victory.

year or risk bankrupting the be home before the maid “Miami Vice.” But “Ferrari” lines, barking orders, and so The fact that we know the
company that he and his arrives with the morning despite Mann’s leaning on he’s lost in the second half, future of Ferrari it will pro-
wife, Laura, have built from coffee. It’s a signal that the Italian opera fails to ignite. while we’re never really in- duce graceful, expensive
the ashes of world war. surfaces of things matter. One scene split between vested in the five drivers he roadsters lusted after and
Enzo and Laura are still re- The private and public high Mass while simultane- has sent out to represent insulted in equal turns takes
covering from losing a son lives of Ferrari will ultimately ously drivers zip through a the brand. Distance is a away some of the jeopar-
to muscular dystrophy but come to a head with the track doesn’t work no mat- strange part of the movie dy. It’s also hard to root for
she doesn’t know that Mr. results of the treacherous ter how high the volume is and viewers will fight to a rich CEO with a mistress.
Ferrari has another family a 1,000-mile race across Italy, pushed. find a heart in the cool ele- If anything, this is a movie
girlfriend (Shailene Wood- the Mille Miglia. If Ferrari Part of the problem is Troy gance.Driver does the best that will make you hit the
ley, great but wrong here) has a good showing and Kennedy Martin’s script, an actor can to reveal the gas a little harder coming
who has given birth to a se- embarrasses competitor which tries to have it both warmth inside Ferrari, who home.q

Author receives German prize in scaled-down
format after comparing Gaza to Nazi-era

ghettos

reaction to an article com- Palestinians. Reaction to Arendt Prize for Political
paring Gaza to Nazi Ger- the article comes as Ger- Thought on Friday in the city
man ghettos. man society grapples with hall of Bremen, in northwest
The comparison in a recent the fallout from the Israel- Germany, but the sponsor-
New Yorker article was Hamas war, with both pro- ing organization, the Hein-
viewed as controversial in Palestinian protests and rich Böll Foundation, and
Germany, where govern- pro-Israel demonstrations the Senate of the city of
ment authorities strongly taking place in past weeks. Bremen withdrew from the
support Israel as a form of German leaders have re- ceremony.
Russian American writer Masha Gessen, poses for a photo after remorse and responsibility peatedly stressed their sup- It took place instead in a
receiving the Hannah Arendt Prize. in event room F61, in Bremen, after Adolf Hitler's Germany port for the country's Jews different location Satur-
Germany, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023. murdered up to 6 million and for Israel as they have day with about 50 guests
Associated Press
Jews in the Holocaust.Ges- denounced antisemitic in- crowded into a small event
BERLIN (AP) — The Russian- man literary prize Saturday sen, who was born Jewish cidents. room and with police se-
American writer Masha in a ceremony that was de- in the Soviet Union, is criti- Gessen was originally due curity, the German news
Gessen received a Ger- layed and scaled down in cal of Israel's treatment of to receive the Hannah agency dpa reported. q