Jarin Blaschke, “The Northman”
Robert Eggers has, in just 3 features, settled on a visual sensibility that’s instantly recognizable and frankly unique among his contemporaries: Deliberate pacing, complex shot construction, tactile set design, and lighting that’s either natural or faux-realistic (a la “The Lighthouse,” whose appearance of “natural” lighting is the product of big damn HMIs). It helps that Eggers has a distinct aesthetic. It also helps that he hires the same guy, Jarin Blaschke, to shoot his films. “The Northman,” in simple terms, is very much an Eggers joint, all controlled camera movement and rigorous composition with a historical foundation to ground his fondness for all things spooky, scary, and straight-up odd. For Blaschke, this is just another day at the office, except the office is in Northern Ireland on some days and Iceland on others, and conditions range from miserable to horrible. There’s a primal element at play in “The Northman” that’s present in “The Lighthouse” and “The Witch” but reduced; the legend that inspired Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” being the Scandinavian saga of Amleth, invites Blaschke to get in touch with his inner Viking berserker. But the work of Eggers has long-honed Blaschke’s instincts as a DP. “The Northman” holds a scope that far outsizes anything either has worked with before, but that longstanding relationship pulls them through a harrowing, brutal effort of vengeance. – AC
Ben Davis, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Finding the beauty in the reaches of a far-green country like Ireland does not, in theory, take much by way of talent; all you need is a camera and some hands, and perhaps an arm, to keep everything steady. For Ben Davis, Martin McDonagh’s cinematographer on “The Banshees of Inisherin,” the inverse is true. Ireland’s rugged, seaward beauty appears to find him as if in search of a good lens to photograph its emerald splendor. There’s fantasy in Davis’ approach to capturing McDonagh’s story of abject melancholy, a sense that the heaped sadness his characters inhabit and exhibit at the same time is simply part of the land they’re walking on. Of course, this isn’t true, or part of the film’s plot, concerning the abrupt dissolution of local nice guy Pádraic (Colin Farrell) and local fiddle maestro aspirant Colm’s (Brendan Gleeson) longstanding friendship. There is nothing magical about what transpires between these men once that bond breaks. But there is magic in the earth they tread, and Davis siphons it out slowly, gracefully, in each image. – AC
Daniel Vecchione, “Down with the King”
Massachusetts’ Berkshires region enjoys a reputation as a showcase for great art, abundant ice cream and coffee, and breathtaking vistas. Daniel Vecchione leans into the breathtaking part for Diego Ongaro’s “Down with the King,” and his focal point is isolation: The Berkshires is peppered with affluent towns but broadly comprises sprawling farmland and woods, verdant in the summer, blazing in the fall, and utterly desolate in winter. “Down with the King” taps into that desolation as disillusioned rapper Mercury Maxwell (Freddie Gibbs) makes an apathetic go at cobbling together his new album; he’s more excited by farming than MCing, but he’s crushingly lonely too. Partly that’s because he’s a Black American man occupying very, very white spaces. Partly, though, it’s Vecchione driving home how distant Mercury is from the city life he’s accustomed to and from which he longs to escape. He escapes, all right, but he runs into Vecchione, whose lens reminds Merc — and us — that we’re just blips on nature’s radar. – AC
Kim Ji-yong, “Decision to Leave”
Kim Ji-yong has been shooting movies for almost as long as Park Chan-wook has been making them. In fact, back in the early days of Korean New Wave cinema – or, depending on who you ask, the Post Korean New Wave – Kim shot his first feature for another South Korean master, Bong Joon-ho, being 2005’s “A Bittersweet Life.” The precision Kim brought to that movie reflects well in “Decision to Leave,” Park’s 11th project, where every kind of line imaginable is crossed, and thus the skills of a seasoned, organized cinematographer are essential: Emotional lines, ethical lines, existential lines, the lines of reality, and even spatial lines. Parts of the movie occur in the protagonist Hae-joon’s (Park Hae-il) imagination. He pictures himself in his inadvisable crush Seo-rae’s (Tang Wei) apartment at night when he should be living in the present with his lovely wife Jung-an (Lee Jung-hyun). Is it worse that Hae-joon is married or that Seo-rae is his prime suspect in a murder case? (They’re both bad.) No matter. Kim keeps the boundaries of tension in order that push “Decision to Leave’s” plot while handsomely emphasizing the high-end luster that’s characteristic of Park’s cinema (also, wow, please look at the VFX reel below which has David Fincher-ian levels of subtle, but masterful artistry to it). The result is not only one of Park’s best-looking movies but one of his best movies — period. – AC
“Peter Andrews,” “KIMI”
Remember the time Steven Soderbergh said he was going to retire from filmmaking and take up painting instead? Remember when he made “Behind the Candelabra,” then retired, then months after that came out of retirement and made “The Knick,” and then came out of retirement again, because apparently “The Knick” was just something to entertain himself with while out of the game? What a kidder, that Steven Soderbergh. Look: People only call it quits when they run out of things to say. Soderbergh is a pioneer without whom the movies wouldn’t be the same; he’ll run out of things to say only when he’s kaput, and even that might not stop him. “KIMI” has a great deal to say, even when it appears not to say much of anything at all. The film may be notable upfront for an all-timer Zoë Kravitz performance and for being arguably the first COVID movie to address the COVID crisis in meaningful ways, but Soderbergh’s nimble work as his own cinematographer is a knockout, too, flashy but unobstructed, as if he and Kravitz each have an understanding of the other’s stylishness and agreed not to step on their toes. “You stand there. I’ll stand over here. We’ll both look cool. Go.” – AC
