KEITH UHLICH
Napoleon
film roundup
Napoleon (Dir. Ridley Scott). Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Ludivine Sagnier. Cinema’s most prolific octogenarian, Ridley Scott, is in his element with this sprawling, quite entertaining epic about the short French general done in by his delusions of grandeur. Joaquin Phoenix stars as eventual Emperor Bonaparte, and he leans hard into his method stylings so that every scene is an adventure. Which Joaquin, and which Napoleon, will we get? The brilliant tactician? The contemptuous introvert? The guy who can cast a truly disturbing, multifaceted glance or the ham who entertains himself by waxing philosophic about the thick cut of meat on his plate? The performer’s unevenness befits the character he’s playing, in other words, and even when he’s at his worst we’ll be assured of some lavishly spectacular setpiece to distract us. (A battle scene on the ice begets some especially memorable visuals.) Napoleon’s beleaguered love Josephine, played by a steely Vanessa Kirby, is something of an afterthought in this version, though Scott has promised a longer, streaming-only four-hour cut to come will right the balance between the two characters. [R] HHH1/2 Ferrari (Dir. Michael Mann). Starring: Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley. A long-gestating passion project for director Keith Uhlich is a NY-based writer published at Slant Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Time Out New York, and ICON. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle. His personal website is (All (Parentheses)), accessible at keithuhlich.substack.com. 14
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Michael Mann, this biopic about Italian car maker Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) focuses on three eventful months in the auto entrepreneur’s life, circa 1957. His marriage to his wife and business partner Laura (Penélope Cruz) is on the rocks, and he is also maintaining a second relationship with his mistress Lina (Shailene Woodley), with whom he has a child. If that wasn’t enough, his company is on the verge of bankruptcy and only the upcoming, very treacherous race known as the Mille Miglia has the potential to provide him with the leverage to come out on top. As in many a Mann film, the dialogue is terse and the action is fierce. (The vehicular climax, in which tragedy ultimately negates triumph is, no surprise, spectacularly orchestrated.) The performers feel a bit mismatched unfortunately, with Cruz faring best among the three leads, playing an emotional whirlwind of a woman who yokes everyone around her, and the very movie she’s in, to her distinct advantage. [R] HHH1/2 The Iron Claw (Dir. Sean Durkin). Starring: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson. Somewhere between a generic male weepie and a masochistic gauntlet in the vein of Darren Aronofsky, Sean Durkin’s drama tells the true-life story of the Von Erich family, a dynasty of wrestlers afflicted by never-ending tragedy. Patriarch Fritz (Holt McCallany), long denied the pro sport’s highest title, trains his four sons Kevin (Zac Efron), David (Harris Dickinson), Mike (Stanley Simons) and Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) with the dual aims of glory C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 6