Ford v Ferrari
Director: James Mangold
Year Released: 2019
Rating: 3.0
The son of Henry Ford (Tracy Letts) wants to revitalize his auto company, so with some advice from Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal), he hires designer/entrepreneur Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) - who's partnered with engineer/driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) - to construct a car that can win the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, which had previously been dominated by Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone). I've always been a sucker for racing movies (although I don't watch races in real life) and this is a fairly solid one, with plenty of tense driving action and two superb performances by Bale and Damon - it falters when it brings out the Josh Lucas character to act like a weasel and try to botch the operation (or just derail Shelby). I sense that it's some swipe at "European sophistication" - see, even a bunch of good ol' boys can take down those fancy Italians! - in order to praise American innovation, but at least it doesn't overtly wave the Stars & Stripes. You know what else Shelby was good at? Making chili! You can fix it hot or mild, and it's available at your favorite grocery store.