There are whiffs of that sentiment coming off the reviews. Lisa Schwarzbaum at Entertainment Weekly says "Public Enemies re-creates clothes, but doesn't fully fashion the man who wore them." Which reads to us like the film is just another feat of stylish camerawork and deftly-applied new technologies (Enemies was filmed entirely in HD, for example). Schwarzbaum sends the film to critical no man's land by giving it a listless B-. What are we to do with a B minus?

There's no doubt that Mann is a supremely talented director—Manhunter is a plodding procedural picture that is probably the most adeptly faithful adaptation of Thomas Harris' often florid prose (Silence of the Lambs is too lovely and sad and mysterious and wistful—it's its own thing entirely). And Heat, well Heat is a crime movie to end all crime movies. There any dash of emotion and depth of feeling (thanks be to you, Diane Venora) was a welcome and surprising respite from what the film needed to be, which was grim and mechanical.

Manhola Dargis at the New York Times, one of our favorite film critics, gave Enemies a rave, but language like this still makes us worry:

The same holds true of "Public Enemies," which looks and plays like no other American gangster film I can think of and very much like a Michael Mann movie, with its emphasis on men at work, its darkly moody passages, eruptions of violence and pictorial beauty. Mr. Mann's digital manipulations, in particular, which encompass almost pure abstraction and interludes of hyper-realism, is worthy of longer exegesis, one that explores how this still-unfamiliar format is changing the movies: it allows, among other things, filmmakers to capture the eerie brightness of nighttime as never before.

See, there she is being dazzled by the same magicks that have left us feeling all dour and depressed after all of the most recent Mann pictures. Sure Collateral looked great, but where was the genuine tension, where was the human spark that should have made us care about Jamie Foxx's survival? Miami Vice had striking visual moments as well, but was otherwise cold as a fish flopping on a Key West dock. The whole "my partner got shot, oh my god" moments were swallowed up by Mann's turgid music, his gloomy, oppressive lighting. (And about that music. It's a semi-known fact that Mann is going deaf, but still insists on doing his own audio mixing.)

Lately we're worried that there really isn't anything else up Mann's sleeve but polished trickery. Public Enemies, what with the economy these days and all, could be a story of poor America bubbling over into revolt. And maybe it is! We haven't seen it! But from the ten or so reviews we've read, it sounds mostly the same as everything else. And yet he's still one of those few directors that thoughtful critics love to love. Because he shows them something gritty and dangerous and, most of all, cool, when most of the Good films they review these days are sparkling indies or message movies. Though it's not like there aren't other people making cannily-shot crime films—the sublime No Country for Old Men comes to mind. But there was something mysterious and existential and, well, deep at work in that movie that Mann has so far seemed unable to conjure.

What do you think? Can 66-year-old Michael Mann make a movie these days that's hinged more heavily on story and character than on technical craft? Do you care?

Image via Getty

Enemies was the subject of a Sherman Oaks test screening over the weekend, reviews of which have been pieced together from message boards and other outlets of a mostly happy viewership. Loath to major spoilers as we are, we've chosen a few, more subtle highlights to illuminate what you have to look forward to from the Depp-Bale-Cotillard saga coming to theaters July 1:

· "To watch Johnny's face go through all the emotions he's feeling is just incredible."

· "THE MAIN THING THAT BOTHERED ME MOST? The handheld cameras. Really did not like the handheld cameras. During the shoot outs I felt like I was in a video game and that took me out of the movie and it just pissed me off. I couldn't think of why Michael Mann decided to film the movie like that."

· "As for the film needing "tightening"-possibly. I'm not sure what else could be cut, but then again, I know the story so it wasn't difficult for me to follow. I noticed a few camera shakes which may have been unintentional( or maybe intentional?) The gunfire is very loud which I didn't mind, but some might think it too loud."

· "[N]o sex scenes to speak of - just enough to show that [John Dillinger] & Billie were totally connected. (Sorry ladies….I would've liked a scene or two, it wasn't really necessary to the story.)"

· "Bale was not developed enough. Thought his accent was great and he was very believable, but I think more time should have spent on his character than say Baby Face Nelson. There were a couple other side characters I didn't care about either, but it didn't ruin the experience for me. Marion Cotillard. What can I say other that she's beautiful and talented."

· "Just bring your kleenex."

• Test Screening Reviews: Michael Mann's 'Public Enemies' [/Film via NYP]

It's Jeremy Piven vs. Stephen Dorff, round two. The Entourage actor and the pint-size Blade star were both at the Public Enemies wrap party at Bon V lounge in Chicago the other night. "They had a bit of a tiff," said our spy. "Dorff was p - - - ed because it was 'his' wrap party and he thought Piven crashed it."

Dorff has a role in Public Enemies and Piven was in Chicago, his hometown, for a fund-raiser. In 2006, we reported the two had a screaming match at Bungalow 8 after Dorff cut in front of Piven in the bathroom line and Piven called him a "has-been." Piven's rep confirmed they were both at the party, but said they "did not interact."

We've since learned that both accounts are true, with a tense reunion outside the VIP-section velvet rope defused by their mutual disgust of the bouncer's earnest urge to "hug it out, fellas" — preferably somewhere over by the cash bar with the foley interns.

[Photo Credit: Getty Images / WireImage]

• Grow Up, Guys [NYP]

The full text of the letter follows the jump. Best of luck to everyone in advance of that Friday deadline!

PUBLIC ENEMIES MEMO

To: All Departments
From: Production
Date: 6/18/08
Re: Wrap Party Department Guest List

To all Department Heads:

The Public Enemies Wrap Party is quickly approaching and the Production Office needs to make final arrangements on the guest list.

Unfortunately since this is a very large show, the Production Office cannot invite everyone on the crew- As a result, we would like to extend an invitation to deserving crewmembers, which have been working
on this show for more than 40 days. Please see the attached pages of crewmembers we have listed in your department to invite.

Please return your department guest list to [name redacted] in the Production office by Friday, June 20. lf the Production Office does not have your guest list by the end of the day on Friday, we will only invite department heads and their seconds.

Any questions or concerns, please contact [name redacted] at the Production office at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Please remember that all guests are subject to approval by the UPM.

Thank you for your help and cooperation.

It was just like that hot night in July 1934. ... Then, flanked by actresses playing the brothel owner Ana Sage and Dillinger's girl for the night, Polly Hamilton, came Johnny Depp. He wore the same clothes Dillinger had worn, light pants, a straw boater, a clean white shirt. He emerged from the theatre, turned to his left, then meandered with the crowd maybe thirty feet down the sidewalk, where the FBI, in the person of the actor Steven Lang, portraying Agent Charles Winstead, was waiting.

They must've shot the scene ten times. All ended the same, with pistols raised, several loud "pop-pop-pops," and Depp stumbling toward the alley. Over and over they shot it, as I stood just steps away, watching intently. I could tell Mann was pleased. At just about five, as the first rays of dawn appeared over Lake Michigan, an assistant yelled "That's a wrap!" And suddenly everyone was all smiles. Plastic cups of beer appeared in Mann's hand and those of his dozen or so cameramen and assistants. ...

At some point I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Michael Mann. "Don't go anywhere," he murmured. "I wanna show you something." ... I followed him and a crowd of assistants into one of the vacant sports bars the production had taken over. Inside, someone stood on one of the bar tables and fed a DVD into an overhead projector. There, as daylight spread across the set outside, Mann showed us the first edited scene of the movie. It had been shot the month before, in Wisconsin, the scene where Dillinger is returned to Chicago following his arrest in Arizona.

I shouldn't say much about what I saw, but it was breathtaking, shot in gorgeous high-definition. There were smiles everywhere. Afterward Mann shook my hand and said, "Nice writing." I walked outside into the dawn, then into a car for O'Hare, feeling as if I was a very lucky author to have my book in such capable hands.

Depp dies! Mann drinks on the set! Expect a cease-and-desist letter to be filed alongside Gina Gershon's any minute now.

[Photo Credit: Beyond Hollywood]

• Happy Endings [VF.com]

· Smelling Oscar, Jamie Foxx will star in DreamWorks' adaptation of the book The Zebra Murders: A Season of Killing, Racial Madness and Civil Rights, playing one of "trailblazing black detectives who set out to solve a series of racially motivated serial killings that rocked San Francisco in the fall and winter of 1973-74." It's a serial killer flick! It's a socially conscious civil rights tale! Academy voters are already fantasizing about checking off Foxx's name on their ballots. [Variety]
· The Red Sox's World Series-opening rout of the Rockies gives Fox nearly as big a Nieslen win over its network rivals. Also: Bionic Woman (see above for fun behind-the-scenes news!) dropped off 23 percent from its previous averages. [THR]
· Demonstrating that Hollywood Cares About The Wildfires, Disney kicks in $2 million in relief. [Variety]
· Michael Mann is making plans to butch up a gone-too-soft Robert De Niro. [Variety]

It was me and about 1,000 of Hollywood's finest D-bags at the Miami Vice premiere last night.

Some observations:

—The roughly 25% of the audience bedecked in their coolest 1980s white suits, neon shirts, fedoras and chest hair all hoping to savor somethrowback action South Florida buddy-cop action. The letdown was intense when it was clear after about 1 hour and 58 minutes into the two hour flick that this was a serious (and seriously depressing) Colombian-Haitian-Feds vs. local cops—border/culture-bending lovemaking-graphically violent effort of auteur filmmaking, and not a Starksy and Hutchesque joke-a-minute-when-we're-not-banging- Miami-Beach-club- skanks-and-playfully-arresting-pimps-and cigar rollers-kind of movie.
Not one piece of stray neon, hair product or goofy Don-Johnson replica smile made it into the movie.

—Eager fauxtuer Brett Ratner standing by the sink in the men's room waiting for his +1 to finish up at the urinal. The +1 was old and stooped and a guy, but it wasnt Robert [Evans.]

— Batshit-crazy Michelle Rodriguez looking extremely hot heading for the men's room before realizing the line of 10 dudes out the door meant it was probably the wrong place for her. She was probably hammered.

— Shaq standing tall and looking sharp. To any person of color who greeted him, a hearty fist bump, smile and quasi hug/chest bump in the finest hip-hop fashion.
To any douchebag white hollywood type attempting to connect on the "I feel you man, I'm a baller too, on weekends at Spectrum or SportsClubLA AND I watch the conference finals on my 95" flat screen AND know how it feels when you're grinding it out on the court because I watch you at Staples: No smile; no hug; no chest bump. But a quick flick of the eyes and a halfhearted fist bump (points to Shaq for not completely ignoring them with the luxury afforded to anyone who's 7-feet tall).

—Emmanuelle Chriqui from Entourage....smoking hot.

—After-party was on the uneven surface of a neighboring parking lot in Westwood (always seemed like you were walking up or down an asphalt slope). "Party under the stars"="Party in a parking lot next to Dede Reese in Westwood Village". Plenty of food and drink (Mojitos for everyone!). Only major misstep were the dozen or so dancers who were dressed in shimmering metallic miniskirts and tops and goofy looking masks. They were a cross between the Gimp in Pulp Fiction and Catwoman if she was white and wearing silver.

Other sightings: Josh Duhamel, Colin Farrell ducking into the after-party, Jamie Foxx holding court at the party and a few others who I'm sure will be dutifully reported by other secret correspondents.

The irony, in Mann's view, was that when the production moved to a relatively upscale area, a local man—a police officer—approached the set, got into a quarrel with a guard (one supplied by the Dominican military), and allegedly pulled a gun. The man was shot and wounded. "It was very scary," Mann acknowledges. "What if this guy has six brothers? What if they blamed us? ... All these questions rush into your head." He says care was taken to ensure that the cast and crew could leave the set safely that day.

But immediately after that incident, [Jamie] Foxx and his entourage packed up and left for good. "Jamie basically changed the whole movie in one stroke," a crew member says—and not, in his opinion, for the better. The ending that was supposed to be shot in Paraguay would have been "much more dramatic."

Asked about Foxx's departure, Mann doesn't speak for a moment and then says, "You hear the sound of silence."

While the Foxx story is certainly interesting and dishy enough, we were most fascinated by the sheer variety of ways that Mann's associates attempted to politely depict him as a borderline insane, control-freak asshole-genius who'll go to any length to get a shot, as in: "Sure, everyone was pissed that we were shooting in the middle of a Level 4 hurricane that blew the production office into the ocean, but the gales knocked down most of the sniper fire—hey, does anyone know if Jack the grip survived the gut-shot?—and I'll be damned if Colin Farrell's hair didn't look fucking great blowing in that 120-mph wind."

• Fleeing the Scene [Slate]
• Previously: Press Release Of The Day: "Miami Vice" Gunman A Poor Shot [Defamer]

We re told that since filming began in June, over 120 crew members have jumped ship, exhausted by [director Michael] Mann s famously obsessive demands, ceaseless revisions, and 24/7 schedule. One production assistant says that resignations are now being turned in on an almost daily basis, with employees typically citing illness or dying relatives. Few members of the original crew remain, the source says. [...]

And it s not just the key grips who are feeling mutinous. We re told Universal execs, watching the disaster unfold from Hollywood, are infuriated by the movie s ballooning budget and lagging schedule. The movie, greenlighted at an already obscene $120 million and set to wrap in September, has nearly doubled in costs and is still lensing in Paraguay and Miami with no end in sight, we hear.

The production appears to be taking an inevitable turn towards Lord of the Flies-style savagery; it's only a matter of time before remaining crew members raid the makeup and wardrobe trailers, only to emerge in warpaint and pastel suit tatters with boom mic spears in hand, shouting for the blood of their own above-the-title "Piggy," Vice's beer-boobed Colin Farrell.

• Of Vice and Mann [Radar Online]
• Previously: Press Release Of The Day: Miami Vice Gunman A Poor Shot [Defamer]