“Tales From The Loop”
Inspired by Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag’s wondrous rural imaginings, visually “Tales From the Loop,” could well resemble what something like Jeff Nichol’s “The Iron Giant,” might look like. Invisibly incorporating practical effects and understated but evocative architecture into its small-town world, the show’s pilot was shot by David Fincher’s regular collaborator Jeff Cronenweth (fittingly, the son of “Blade Runner” cinematographer, Jordan Cronenweth) having a melancholy and meditative aesthetic that evokes the feeling of curling up alone with a sad sci-fi fable. The implementation of the various robotic high concepts is also quite impressive; in the episode “Stasis,” one birds-eye-view shot able to capture a whole block frozen in time save for a young couple, spinning in a “Before Sunrise”-like bliss who decide to make love in the middle of the street. The hour pays this sequence off with a variation of this visual idea that will make your heart sink. Adapted from a book whose pages already pop like painted widescreen, the devices that alter the citizens of the Loop’s day-to-day may be mechanical, but the setting composes them in a way that is metrically pure; their lives are intertwined, yet we see a corroding-futurist countryside through intimate, individual eyes. – AB
“Perry Mason”
You could argue HBO’s “Perry Mason,” a kind of origin story prequel for the famous lawyer was a bit convoluted in its mystery and narrative. What you simply couldn’t argue, is just how gorgeous it looked and how beautifully crafted it was. Directed by Timothy Van Patten (“Boardwalk Empire,” “Game of Thrones”) and Deniz Gamze Ergüven (“Mustang”), and shot by Darran Tiernan (“Westworld”) and David Franco (“Game of Thrones”), “Perry Mason” looked like a million bucks, in part because of some of these veteran craftsmen, who helped bring it to life. Yes, “Perry Mason,” is a detective noir, a story about a dogged gumshoe in the search of truth, and yes, the cliché of mystery and noir is shadow, and silhouette, and yes, those elements are there. But “Perry Mason” was cinematic, transforming shadow into a greater art of chiaroscuro, with gorgeous sweeping tracking shots, exquisitely-framed close-up bursts, and handsome use of elevated cranes. HBO spared no expense with this show, its production values, costumes, and set design are like top-shelf bourbon and the shooters of this immaculately crafted series lapped it up with such admiring care and attention to detail. – RP
“Gangs Of London”
No man on the planet we call Earth has as preternatural a gift for filming an ass-beating as Gareth Evans, a Welshman by birth and a violent madman by trade. The whole wheat side of Evans is unfailingly friendly, polite to a fault, thoughtful, insightful, and surprisingly funny; the frosted side of Evans has its gears constantly turning, always looking for the next creative way to break a man down to his component parts in bar fights or construction site brawls. “Gangs of London,” his new AMC series, preserves that authorial dichotomy with some of the most brutal hidings he’s ever constructed; his team of cinematographers—Martijn van Broekhuizen, Laurent Barès, and Matt Flannery, his DP on both of the “Raid” film as well as “Apostle” and his first feature, “Merantau”—have the fortitude to make his bone-shattering visions reality and the stamina to keep up with his tempo. – AC
“The Vast of Night”
When you think of low-budget indies, the idea of beautiful, lush cinematography doesn’t typically spring to mind. Normally, filmmakers are just focusing on getting their indie features made and will cut corners when at all possible to save money and/or time. But the budgetary limitations in Andrew Patterson’s “The Vast of Night” seem to not only enhance the viewing experience but force the filmmaker, along with veteran Chilean cinematographer Miguel Ioann Littin Menz, to experiment with style and convention in a way that makes this late-‘50s era period thriller feel incredibly modern and unique. From the delicate use of colors and darkness (the film is set almost in real-time over the course of one evening) to the technically dazzling one-take shots that travel through the entirety of the mysterious, small town in New Mexico, there isn’t one moment in “The Vast of Night” that feels cheap or lazy. Creating a film that focuses on a radio DJ and a phone operator with long stretches of dialogue into mics and telephones, and turning it into one of the most visually stunning films of 2020 is an accomplishment too big to ignore. – Charles Barfield
“The Climb”
If cinematography was just pretty pictures and sun-dappled magic hour photography, then no, director Michael Angelo Covino’s “The Climb” would not be on this list. Fortunately for all of us then, that it’s much more than just that. Take “The Climb” which is an indie about a toxic BFF friendship, and two male best friends that cannot escape one another, even after one of the narcissistic, selfish asshole men (Covino himself pulling double duty) continues to make one emotional betrayal after another on his so-called best friend. It’s a film about, ultimately, forgiveness and empathy, but perhaps also suckerdom too: why can’t we cut toxic people from our lives? But modeled after the French comedies of Pierre Étaix and Jacques Tati, “The Climb” is terrifically composed with an eye towards sly and subtle visual comedy. Shot by Zach Kuperstein (“The Eyes of My Mother”), one can’t remember the last time a comedy was shot this thoughtfully; the frame, and what’s not in it, is always so carefully considered and considered for comedy. People crash into the frame, characters fall out of the frame, “The Climb” features exquisite long shots (including one that is an exterior outside a home, tracking characters inside and then snakes its way into the home for a gloriously hilarious crescendo). No one shoots films like this anymore, and thus “The Climb” is one of the most visually inventive films of the year, though one that many may not regard as such because the work is wonderfully subtle. Give another shout-out to Kuperstein, the arthouse horror, “The Eyes Of My Mother” was already a formalist wonder, and now he’s got at least one other classic under his belt with surely more to come. – RP
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