Public Enemies
Coming off a three day Japanese Pink film bender, Divad Q. Nead presses on, sticking out Michael Mann’s “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” -a cautionary tale about costume design. We’re not quite sure what he means -
Illinois tailors rejoice! you’ve got a new slope to covet, Colleen Attwood your saving grace, we might never even know we’re jobless, now that we look so good in our Prince Albert, tight at the waist, is my gun showing? - And how fab the over the shoulder holster, the Texan gauntso dutifully posited throughout Mann’s tributeto the Y gens backyard VHS films of the late 80s.Yes, Depp comes at us with his Tennessee Willcome William Powell (cameo!) mottled cherry & orange old fashioned - I scuttled the “of course”for a broader, more inclusive “oh please” - Bale can’t decide which film he’s in exactly, and that’sa bonus, as Crudup can’t either, with his blue junk still vivid in my mind, which bub ate the snake again? Oh look now I’m making cock jokes and Cotillards, now that’s a cocktail name, The Cotillard - one finger Ricard, two cubes, and a wet shirt - even in a tub giving us the come hither, I never quite got Marion’sugh enough to suspend my faith in digital - sure sure we’ve been warned twice in Miami, once in L.A. & now we’re covered in grainy (it really is) Illinois, custom fit Tatums hanging over our Dorfs and Ribisis - boys, mere merede of a ream waste, the daydream of stag films from the early 40s - now I’d pay to see that jump off -My Keystone Cop kin quipped that the gunfire was true to the range, and even noted that muzzle flash bore signature, but I paid my dues to the Thomson Gun long before hitting the seats. You can’t make a bank job joint out of lead, not even with scenes of a backwoods inn shot Swiss from the inside. Depp carries us in a satchel of sunglasses, a few good jaw shots, and a sweaty shirt.Mann does nearly zero to get me curious about the lastact, for we all know Johnny gets capped, and guffaw! after a film - a welcome sight to see Gable and a stunning Will Powell in ‘Manhattan Melodrama’, now there’s a title, Mike. Much will be said regarding digital, I’m not weighing-inmore than I have, it’s here to stay, much like a papilloma,or a Stevie Dorff. ‘Public Enemies’ wins as a tribute to Beatty and Hackman, DeNiro and Kilmer, Jesee James, but, much like the soggy, thought-laden fedoras of 1930, we’ve had enough criminal character studies, we’ve had enough chili and cheese. Crime flicks, themselves, aren’t much beyond period pieces or our idealized vilification, our dastard bastard men have left the annals of our streets, or at least been seen on “The Wire” and then silent, to perchupon the parapets of Wall Street, immune to gunfire, clad, ironically in the same dapper gear as Christian [Dior] & Jon, impervious to anything but a doc., a Gekko sequel (please).I’m sticking with my Asian kit until America comes up with a dutiful way to get me glued to those plastic day-boats wecall ‘seats’. In the meantime, I’ve still got Beatty and Faye.
~ DQN
