Ferrari
Neon | Release Date: December 25, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 55 Critic Reviews
Positive:
39
Mixed:
16
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Rolling StoneMarlow SternAug 31, 2023
Frankly, Cruz’s turn alone is worth the price of admission. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriAug 31, 2023
Ferrari is elegant and restless, with a sense throughout that something horrific might be lurking around each corner. And when the director straps his cameras on those cars and sends them on their way, the picture transforms into something more visceral and chaotic, a fever dream (or maybe a nightmare) of speed and smoke. Read full review
100
VarietyOwen GleibermanAug 31, 2023
The specter of death haunts the racing scenes in “Ferrari.” That’s part of their intoxicating charge. But it isn’t just the action that’s fraught with thrilling danger. Every moment of the drama moves with a sense of high-stakes dread, of underlying emotional turbulence. Read full review
90
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJan 8, 2024
In disclosing the secret of engineering, Mann also offers a passionate and personal word on the secret of the cinema itself. Read full review
90
VoxRenan BorelliJan 4, 2024
The strongest parts of Ferrari are imbued with Mann’s dedication to proper filmmaking. It would certainly be easier to cheat and use CGI to make it seem like Enzo Ferrari’s cars are going fast. Having the skill and the wherewithal to show us the real thing is something only a director like Michael Mann is equipped to do. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 24, 2023
Mann shoots this lunatic race from every conceivable angle — with cameras in and out of cars, bearing down on drivers’ faces, agitatedly hovering midair — creating an immersive, visceral intimacy that, as engines whine and thunderously roar, you feel in your bones. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangDec 22, 2023
Amid the roaring motors and screeching tires of “Ferrari,” Michael Mann’s operatic saga of fast cars, furious women and the powerful human citadel who toyed with them all, a moment occasionally rises from the smoke with the grace and clarity of an aria. Read full review
90
Vanity FairRichard LawsonAug 31, 2023
Mann’s film is all the more pleasurable for its thoughtfulness and restraint. Read full review
90
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeAug 31, 2023
Ferrari emerges as that rarest of films: the complex, complicated biopic. Like his subject, Mann appreciates beauty and power while never forgetting that beauty can wither and power can destroy; within that matrix of messy contradictions, he creates haunting drama. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJan 3, 2024
The race itself is another of the movie’s astonishing set pieces; Mann and cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt give it a fresh sense of vroom, even if you think you’ve seen all the movie car races you’ll ever need. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoDec 18, 2023
Without making it blatant, this is a film that is obviously building to disaster, a story of a man who is the human iteration of one of his high-speed vehicles, just hoping not to crash. Read full review
88
The Daily BeastNick SchagerOct 14, 2023
Painting a multifaceted portrait of the racing legend during a particular moment of personal and professional crises, the auteur’s first feature since 2015’s Blackhat hums with steely passion and pain. Read full review
83
ColliderRoss BonaimeNov 22, 2023
From the gorgeous cinematography by Erik Messerschmidt, the mesmerizing Daniel Pemberton score, a towering performance by Cruz, and Martin’s screenplay that reflects as much on Enzo’s insular battles as well as his public ones in equal measure, Ferrari is one of Mann’s best film in years. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 2, 2024
It’s a messy story, but with Mann’s structural rigor imposed upon it. That is a powerful combination, and one that makes “Ferrari” a bizarrely compelling entry in the Mann canon. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithDec 29, 2023
It’s as effective as one of the fabled machines it celebrates. Read full review
80
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsDec 28, 2023
Driver is very good in the lead, pulling back some of the favour lost on his futzed stereotypical take on an Italian in House of Gucci. But it’s Cruz who adds the real nitro to this film. Read full review
80
Screen RantAlex HarrisonDec 22, 2023
If entertainment is all you're looking for, you'll find it, and you'll even have the fun of debating the accents and VFX as you leave the theater. But there's also a lot more to find beneath its surface pleasures, making it a worthy Christmas capstone for what has been a very good year for adults at the movies. Read full review
80
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzDec 19, 2023
Mourning her only child, her marriage, and very likely her fortune as the betrayed and sidelined Laura, Cruz goes scorched-earth, incinerating any performer sharing her space. Read full review
80
SlashfilmAudrey FoxOct 17, 2023
Although there's sometimes a disconnect between parts of the story that deal with Enzo's personal life and the frenetic racing scenes, they somehow work together in tandem, combining to create one of Michael Mann's most emotionally satisfying films in years. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinAug 31, 2023
The crash scenes have a horrible heart-in-mouth quality: it’s as if you can feel the tumble of gravity working on your own insides. And the same goes for the racing itself, which like the vehicles is somehow sleek and crunchy all at once – inches from disaster at any given moment, and all the more beautiful for it. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerDec 20, 2023
Mann's decision to restrict this portrait to such a limited time period may leave audiences a little dissatisfied that important events are only recounted, not depicted. But then, if you're on the most thrilling corner of a track, you may not see the finish line. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJan 2, 2024
As a well-acted standard-order bio-pic, Ferrari delivers but as something more, it falls short. Read full review
75
Original-CinChris KnightJan 2, 2024
Back in the 1950s the cars were little more than cockpits on wheels, without so much as a seatbelt. There might be a few hay bales by the side of the track. And then as now, there was a morbid fascination in the notion of a crash taking a driver and car out of a race. But be careful what you wish for. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJan 2, 2024
The film, admittedly, does not rev up as fast as a Ferrari. The director initially prefers a relaxed pace and almost sepia color scheme that make us unsure, sometimes in frustration, of what the vibe of the story is supposed to be. Read full review
75
ABC NewsPeter TraversDec 29, 2023
The great Michael Mann directs a powerfully nuanced Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari, the ex-racer-turned-entrepreneur. The domestic scenes with his wife (Penelope Cruz) and mistress (Shailene Woodley) slow the pacing but the vroom of tires on the road is thrilling to the max. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubCourtney HowardDec 22, 2023
The movie is often darkly funny as the characters lob barbs at each other. Nevertheless, the story feels a tad truncated in spots. An elongated run time would service the action and narrative a bit better—and, as Mann fans know, he does love releasing a good director’s cut. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 20, 2023
Ferrari never quite achieves the greatness of previous Mann movies such as “Thief” and “Heat,” but it’s a solid and extremely well-filmed slice of one legendary life. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineKeith UhlichOct 24, 2023
That liminal space between the peaks and the valleys of a person’s life is what Michael Mann is most interested in exploring. Read full review
75
The Film StageLuke HicksSep 3, 2023
Penélope Cruz steals the show as the pistol-wielding Laura. . . It’s a great performance founded on a sizzling bitterness that manifests the film’s only (darkly) comedic moments in bursts of scathing monologue. Read full review
75
IndieWireRyan LattanzioAug 31, 2023
Ferrari is more gritty than glossy even at its most tightly coiled, with Mann’s searching camera never quite fixed in one place. Read full review
73
TheWrapBen CrollAug 31, 2023
It should come with little surprise that Ferrari astounds when Mann’s focus narrows to pure gear-head reverie; unfortunately, in between the film’s narrative engine often sputters and stalls. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJan 2, 2024
The screenplay is by Troy Kennedy Martin, who died in 2009. It features the trusty components of a Mann movie: the smooth mechanics of professional labor, plus—or, more often, versus—the exhaust manifold of men’s emotional lives. Read full review
70
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganAug 31, 2023
The man himself and the machine tend to become confused in a swirl of dark glasses and wet raincoats in a production-perfect Italy of the late 1950s. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekAug 31, 2023
Mann is a fantastic technician, but his perpetual coolness is a liability. He seems to want us to understand this complex, deeply private man, one who was both revered and reserved. But in the end, he’s more interested in Enzo Ferrari’s mystique than in his humanity. Read full review
70
IGNRafaela Sales RossAug 31, 2023
Leaning away from blood-pumping thrills and towards family drama, Ferrari benefits from another great turn by Adam Driver and a handful of masterfully choreographed race scenes but is ultimately too risk-averse. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyAug 31, 2023
Ferrari is unlikely to go down as canonical Mann, lacking the glimmering, hard-edged stylishness of his best work. But admirers of the director’s high-intensity, muscular filmmaking will not go unrewarded. Read full review
67
Paste MagazineAnna McKibbinAug 31, 2023
Ferrari is a loud and thrilling race that leaves the figure of Enzo stranded on the side of the road, unknown and lost. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 22, 2023
I wouldn’t mind seeing Ferrari again sometime just for Cruz, and for a few of Mann’s most gratifying examples of classical Hollywood technique, done his way. The movie reinvents no wheels. But it sure knows how to film ‘em. Read full review
63
Washington PostMark JenkinsDec 19, 2023
Enzo Ferrari was a real person, not just a narrative device. No matter how ardently he sang of speed and danger, there must have been more to his character than Ferrari manages to find. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyJan 5, 2024
Ferrari drives determinedly in an uncertain direction. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeDec 26, 2023
A terrific Penélope Cruz makes up for the lack of colour with her enjoyably strident turn as Ferrari’s permanently furious wife, Laura. Read full review
60
CineVueChristopher MachellDec 26, 2023
This biopic is a well-mounted and handsomely shot study of men obsessed by their work, but never fully hits top gear. Read full review
60
EmpireIana MurrayDec 20, 2023
A surprisingly staid biopic of Ferrari’s venerable originator. In unpacking motorsport’s greatest legacy, it gets bogged down in a dull relationship drama — but the racing sequences are thrillingly visceral. Read full review
60
Time OutElizabeth WeitzmanOct 16, 2023
The first ten minutes of Michael Mann's ’50s-set Ferrari offer a wordlessly kinetic ode to industry: glossy racecars speed across open Italian tracks, stately trains glide into stations packed with anticipation, bedside phones jangle off hooks and onto nerves. But then the dialogue begins, and this carefully engineered movie starts its downshift into neutral. Read full review
60
Total FilmJane CrowtherAug 31, 2023
Like Ferrari’s motors, the production is sleek, expensive-looking and runs handsomely. But unlike the brand’s famous 0-60 mph starting capabilities, Mann’s film takes time to run the tyres in, only really reaching top gear in its second half. It works as a companion piece to Le Mans ‘66, but doesn’t manage to surpass it. Read full review
60
BBCNicholas BarberAug 31, 2023
The racing sequences have enough energy and jeopardy to raise the pulse rate, but the rest of Ferrari... well, surely a film about high-speed cars shouldn't pootle along as slowly as this one does. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawAug 31, 2023
Cruz brings gall, spite and passion to the role of Laura, but there’s not much for Woodley to do in the thankless role of Lina. And Driver is a remote and unengaging paterfamilias. But no one could doubt the style with which Mann stages those race scenes, with their danger and horror. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonJan 2, 2024
Driver and Cruz are perfect surnames for actors starring in a movie called “Ferrari.” That was just one of the many thoughts I had as the minutes slowly ticked by. At least the loud sound mix kept me awake. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 29, 2023
The racing sequences here are next-level intimate, putting us in the car better than most any film that preceded this one. The crashes in that no-rollbar, pre-seatbelt era are horrific. Read full review
50
CNNBrian LowryDec 25, 2023
“Ferrari” doesn’t click on all cylinders, featuring a miscast Adam Driver as the automotive mogul, in a Michael Mann-directed movie with some arresting moments that add up to less than the sum of its parts. Read full review
50
The Associated PressMark KennedyDec 19, 2023
Most of Mann’s toolkit is here — slick and moody camerawork, a poetic surrounding and heightened use of music, even the car porn of “Miami Vice.” But Ferrari — despite Mann’s leaning on Italian opera — fails to ignite. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 8, 2023
As Enzo Ferrari, Driver looks stylish and commanding, but the movie doesn’t figure out how to make him into an interesting man. Read full review
50
The PlaylistElena LazicAug 31, 2023
Like style, one expects an endearing earnestness from a Mann film, and watching emotionally stunted men discuss love or beauty, like Enzo does during the motor discussion with his son, is always delightful. But all this beauty and sincerity gets undermined by strangely unfocused, dispassionate storytelling. And coming from a filmmaker like Mann, that’s a big surprise. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyMaureen Lee LenkerDec 22, 2023
The film does not valorize Ferrari, but it doesn’t complicate him either. And while its racing sequences are exhilarating, it should have spent more time looking under the hood. Read full review
40
The Irish TimesTara BradyJan 2, 2024
Among the undercooked female parts, Cruz converts a nothing wife role into fabulous distress. Even she can’t save Ferrari. Who knew a film about fast cars could be such a slog? Read full review
More From This Movie

73 Critic Reviews

tbd User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL