Make Time for This - GSPN's Podcast for Pop Culture and Other Things · GSPN, Blue Wire

Ferrari offers another reminder of Michael Mann's greatness

·1 hr 43 min

1. Make Time for This discusses Ferrari as a Michael Mann film about Enzo Ferrari, racing, and control. 2. Adam McGee hosts with Andrew Snyder, who returns after re-watching Mann films and revising his view of Michael Mann’s career. 3. The episode asks what Ferrari reveals about Mann’s style, especially his interest in excellence, process, and men facing each other under pressure. 4. Andrew says Ferrari is in his top 10 films of the year and that Heat, The Insider, Collateral, Thief, and Manhunter changed how he sees Mann. 5. The hosts compare Mann’s work to “elevated dudes being dudes,” then push further into the way his protagonists and antagonists recognize themselves in each other. 6. McGee argues that Mann’s films sit in “this kind of gray area” rather than a simple good-versus-bad split. 7. They note that Ferrari is a break from some Mann staples, even while it still fits his recurring concern with obsession and professionalism. 8. Mann’s age and career pace come up, with Ferrari described as his first feature since Black Hat in 2015 and his first film in eight years. 9. The discussion also covers Tokyo Vice, Black Hat’s later director’s cut, and how public and critical opinion around Mann has shifted recently. 10. Andrew explains that his earlier view of Mann was unfair because he mostly knew Heat and had not really revisited the rest of the filmography. 11. He singles out James Caan in Thief, especially the “adoption agency” scene, as a reminder of Mann’s range. 12. Manhunter impresses him as a thriller he had somehow never seen, with William Petersen and Brian Cox standing out in a version of the Hannibal Lecter story. 13. Ferrari’s production history is discussed, including STX’s messy role, the film’s trip to Neon in the United States, and its distribution through Sky in the UK and Ireland. 14. McGee says the movie was “exactly what I wanted from it,” while Andrew says it did not feel slow and instead balanced racing with business and family drama. 15. They highlight the first crash and death scene as affecting, and the second as shocking because the film refuses to soften the sport’s violence. 16. The Mille Miglia speech from Adam Driver’s Enzo Ferrari is singled out as the film’s best scene and a distillation of Mann’s mission. 17. The episode’s tone is conversational and evaluative, with the hosts moving between rankings, memory, and specific scene analysis. 18. Their style is loose and jokey, but the discussion stays anchored in concrete performances, release history, and craft details. 19. Best for listeners who like Michael Mann, Ferrari, and actor-focused film talk. 20. Skip it if you want a plot recap without broader Mann filmography context.

As heard by us

A strong Mann defense that frames Ferrari as overdue for reappraisal.

Adam McGee and Andrew Snyder treat Ferrari as proof that Michael Mann still has real force behind the camera. Their discussion moves from praise into a wider case for where the film sits in his career, why it may have passed under the radar, and why its standing could improve…

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Why you'd press play

For listeners who want Ferrari treated as a serious Michael Mann conversation.

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