One Category at a Time: Best Cinematography

You know how much I love guys like Chivo and Deakins and Richardson,
but I gotta be honest: It's soooooooooooo refreshing to see some new faces in the Best Cinematography race. With only a single previous nomination between the five of them, this year's nominees represent a future full of promise for the art form, and one of them will be nabbing their first Oscar.

My Award Nominations: Cinematography

The best of 2016's photographic achievements basically came down to a six-horse race for me, and not so different from Oscar's final five. My 'just missed' selection still managed an Oscar nom, and I'm not complaining. I seriously considered allowing myself six Best Cinematography nominees this year, but rules are rules. My five finalists are:

January is for Oscar Movies

Gonna be tough to keep up with the storm of guild announcements, televised awards shows, personal year-in-review posts and late-breaking Oscar players over the next two months. I'll just have to figure out a way.

For those last minute stragglers, I won't have the luxury of exercising my full review muscles (consider my La La Land piece a holiday indulgence), but I'll deposit my abbreviated thoughts here throughout the month.

My first screening of the new year was Denzel Washington's realization of the long dormant Fences adaptation, scripted by its original playwright August Wilson some time before his 2005 death. The screenplay itself doesn't take much advantage of the opportunity for other forms of exposition besides dialogue, but Washington's direction is sturdy, unobtrusive, and has a more cinematic eye.

Review - Argo

As though his first two features Gone, Baby, Gone and The Town weren't proof enough, Argo provides further evidence of Ben Affleck's continued maturation as a skillful, no-nonsense director. Falling into the unimpeachable category of “a good story, well told”, Argo is a near perfect Hollywood dramatization of a true story, deftly balancing tight thrills, human drama, and comic relief within a hugely entertaining and satisfying picture.

Starting off with a very brief history of Iran's political turmoil in the mid-to-late 70s, Affleck proceeds to drop us into a riveting opening sequence of a civilian mob storming the American embassy, brilliantly splicing together archived news footage with meticulously recreated shots (this scene alone is enough to justify William Goldenberg walking away with next year's Oscar for Best Film Editing). Intent on taking hostages so that the U.S. will relinquish the detested Shah who is being harboured stateside, the revolutionaries capture all but six embassy employees, who slip out the back and seek shelter at the house of the Canadian ambassador (Victor Garber). To prevent the unaccounted-for six from being hunted down and executed as spies, the CIA rushes to enact and escape plan. Dissatisfied with his colleagues' suggestions, special agent Tony Mendez (Affleck) comes up with an unlikely strategy to smuggle out the fugitives; as a Canadian film crew on a location scout for a sci-fi movie.

My Award nominations: Cinematography

Best Cinematography:

The American (Martin Ruhe):

Each frame is composed very much with a photographer's eye. This is one of the most effectively shot films of the year, placing emphasis on soft lighting and delicate focus work to ease us into a state of paranoia.

Biutiful (Rodrigo Prieto):

The underworld of Barcelona comes to life with texture and vibrancy through Prieto's lens, creating a tangible sense of place, but without sacrificing the decidedly depressing mood of the film.

Black Swan (Matthew Lebatique):

Lots of fun with mirrors and reflections in this film, all used to evoke relevant themes such as the duality of human nature and as a metaphor for the destructive capability one's own self-image. Dazzling dance sequences!

Fish Tank (Robbie Ryan):

The gritty composition makes effective use of apparatuses of entrapment (ie: bars and fences) to communicate Mia's feelings of imprisonment. The unsettled hand-held movement fits the tone of the film to a tee.

Shutter Island (Robert Richardson):

Richardson's cinematography is, as always, incredible. The screen is filled with arresting images, all of them displaying the man's mastery of composition, movement, colour, and lighting.

Just missed: Dogtooth, Inception, True Grit, The Way Back