Public Enemies (2009) (2009) poster
2009 · crime · drama · biography

Public Enemies (2009)

Directed by Michael Mann2h 20m2009
ElsewhereIMDb6.9334kRT68%Metacritic70TMDB6.75k
  • sombre
  • brisk
  • intense
Movie DNA

Sombre, kinetic, measured crime / drama, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger's charm and audacity endear him to much of America's downtrodden public, but he's also a thorn in the side of J. Edgar Hoover and the fledgling FBI. Desperate to capture the elusive outlaw, Hoover makes Dillinger his first Public Enemy Number One and assigns his top agent, Melvin Purvis, the task of bringing him in dead or alive.

Our read · Public Enemies (2009) (2009) reads as a sombre, kinetic, grounded crime · drama · biography entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
Fingerprint

The shape of Public Enemies

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want Depression-era outlaw glamour shot like a heat haze.

ends bittersweetit stays with yousteady all the waygrips by minute 18attention 4/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upgraphic violence

Skip it tonightYou need faster pacing or heroes who are clearly virtuous.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
Your take
Rate it
star-clip-1-0star-clip-2-0star-clip-3-0star-clip-4-0star-clip-5-0
React
Discussion

Discussion

cmd enter to post

What does your Movie DNA look like?

Rate a few films you've seen. We map your taste across the same twelve axes and find the films you'll actually want to watch tonight.

Calibrate yourself