Director Spotlight: Michael Bay
It's all about Bayhem this week for our Friday recommendations
Frances McDormand said it best: “Michael Bay has a mainline to the testosterone glands of the American male.” Has anyone more aptly summed up Bay’s career? From 1995’s Bad Boys to 2022’s Ambulance (in theaters this weekend), Bay has always been the ultimate and truest example of the commercial popcorn director. His movies are loud, hair-raising, cheesy, and often the most mindless fun you could ever have at the multiplex.
Are they usually good? The question is almost irrelevant. No matter what you think of Michael Bay’s product, the moviemaking is on another level. His explosive film sets are over-the-top expensive, his eye for what Steven Spielberg calls “pure visual adrenaline” is just about unmatched, and his knack for delivering what mainstream audiences crave is typically right on the money (pun intended). Critics may rail against his rapid music video-style editing and his ludicrous storytelling, but the man is going on almost 30 years of undeniable success.
Ambulance is the most interested we’ve been in a Michael Bay movie in a long time, so we’re dedicating this week’s newsletter to the King of Blowing Shit Up. See our Bay recommendations below and subscribe for more DYLA in your inbox!
Drew recommends…
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
If you winced or groaned when you heard that Michael Bay made a movie about the 2012 Benghazi attack only a few years after the fact, that would be understandable. I avoided 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi for years because I assumed it would just be a flag-saluting jingoistic near-parody that ignored the facts of a complex and tragic event. While a couple of Bay’s worst instincts are present here, this is one of his most grounded and least cheesy movies. Yes, it’s just as macho as the rest of Bay’s cinema, but he’s clearly trying to do right by the real soldiers who were on the ground for the hellish chaos of those 13 hours in Benghazi.
A quick refresher on the real-life events: On the night of September 11, 2012, an Islamic militant group launched a coordinated attack on two U.S. government buildings in Benghazi, Libya. This resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including the U.S. Ambassador. Political controversy arose in the aftermath, which led to multiple investigations into the attack, as well as countless conspiracies. Fortunately, Bay leaves most of the political and conspiratorial elements out of 13 Hours, focusing instead on the CIA contractors and soldiers that fought to defend the American compounds under assault.
These figures are played by John Krasinski (newly buff and a long way from Scranton, PA), James Badge Dale, Pablo Schreiber, and others. Before the action gets going we see them lift weights, joke around, and video chat with their families. Despite this brief peek into their personal lives, none of the characters are all that interesting, but we are invested enough to care about their wellbeing once the gunfire and explosions kick off. You don’t come to a Michael Bay flick for well-written character arcs anyway.
The accuracy of 13 Hours’ version of the events is disputed by some, but it doesn’t appear to be so egregiously off base from the truth. You expect some compression and alteration to the real version in any Hollywood product. Bay zeroes in on the confusion and violence of the night, recreating taut and riveting action in a somewhat believable way. He still leans too hard on a handful of corny moments, but, remarkably, he’s more restrained than ever. And his flair for delivering exhilarating set pieces is still on full display. If Bay hadn’t made another Transformers movie and the awful 6 Underground right after this one, I would be wondering if he was maturing as a filmmaker. While 13 Hours is one of his most underrated efforts, I’m not sure we even want a mature Michael Bay.
Streaming on Paramount+
Billy recommends…
The Island
Was this movie a big deal for anyone else when they were just starting high school? The Island is The Truman Show with Michael Bay doing a Tony Scott impression. It’s almost like Bay saw The Truman Show and Man on Fire and wanted to ditch all of the character development and replace it with an exposition-filled sci-fi action movie. That is not entirely a bad thing. What we get is a lived-in story that sets up just enough to earn the insane action and story.
Ewan McGregor plays a skeptical “survivor” named Lincoln Six Echo living in a structured futuristic society who immediately starts to see the cracks in this seemingly well-oiled machine. The only hope these people have to leave this place is through a lottery that will take them to the titular Island, a paradise that provides freedom that they have never known before. Lincoln is quickly gaining a reputation amongst the community as a thinker and someone who is becoming too chummy with a female companion named Jordan Two Delta, played by Scarlett Johansson.
She is a more naive figure that is having her eyes opened by the philosophizer Lincoln. As soon as their connection is beginning to transpire she is picked in the lottery to go to the island. His infatuation and general curiosity sends him down a wild goose chase that exposes unforeseen truths.
Michael Bay typically knows exactly what world he wants his movies to live in and this is no different. The difference here is that we see signs of what is about to come in his career. A man that is caught in the middle of jaw-dropping action and completely selling out. The Island sets up a silly yet harrowing tale that is a lot of fun any time of day or year. It is as Michael Bay as we get and that is always welcome.
Available to rent on demand