Ford v Ferrari

Fact-based yarn about how legendary car designer Carol Shelby (Matt Damon) teamed up with loose cannon driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) to do the unthinkable: have Ford actually be a threat to Ferrari’s stranglehold on victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Of course it’s not an easy feat and Shelby and Miles have to constantly maneuver around the out-of-touch, paper-pushing, back-stabbing corporate world of the Ford Motor Company. Damon and Bale are excellent, they really immerse themselves into the roles so much that it’s easy for the viewer to believe that they’re not just actors up on a screen (even though in real life Shelby and Miles didn’t look that much like Damon and Bale). The supporting cast is great, most notably Jon Bernthal as a young Lee Iacocca, Tracy Letts as Henry Ford II, and Josh Lucas as Leo Beebe, who does a wonderful job as the primary antagonist in the film. Director James Mangold returns to the shiny, fact-based biopic for the first time since the highly successful and critically acclaimed Walk the Line. This is where Mangold is most masterful. Writers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth fit right in the biopic wheelhouse as well, as they both penned the 2014 James Brown biopic Get On Up.

[PG-13]