Mann’s hack attack crashes and burns

Blackhat

Directed by Michael Mann

Nationwide, 15A

Rating: **

The Duke of Burgundy

Directed by Peter Strickland

Selected, 18

Rating: ****

For his first film since the maudlin, misfiring gangster epic Public Enemies six years ago, Michael Mann has made a $200 million tone poem of blurred shapes and blinking lights disguised as a jet-set cyber thriller. With a title derived from internet jargon for a computer hacker with malign intentions,Blackhat alternates between dry IT lectures and heart-pounding action sequences for a film that taps into modern anxieties around computer security, but struggles to channel the resulting flow.