The beauty of Robert Elswit's cinema

by Cláudio Alves

Our odyssey through the 2005 Best Cinematography Oscar nominees is reaching its end. After Dion Beebe, Rodrigo Prieto, and Wally Pfister, we've arrived at the filmography of Robert Elswit.

Mostly known for his collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson, Robert Elswit is a master craftsman whose control of the camera is virtually unparalleled. Whether in choreographed motion or stately stillness, his images sing with meaning and ravishing beauty. More specifically, he's got a penchant for expressive dolly shots, wide-angle lenses, and shoots sunlight in ways that make it bleed white while his shadows, especially at night, glow in hues of blue and even purple. Usually, when you see Elswits name on the credits, you can expect a handsome movie regardless of the rest of the project's quality.

Here are 10 highlights from Robert Elswit's filmography…

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The New Classics: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

by Michael Cusumano

Scene: Scaling the Burj Khalifa
In the course of writing this column, I eventually got around to asking myself the inevitable question:  “What is the 21st century scene I’ve watched the most times?” 

I knew with certainty that the answer was the Burj Khalifa scene from Brad Bird’s Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, even if I couldn’t immediately account for the why. Of course you could simply say ”Why not?” It’s already firmly established in the pantheon of great action scenes. But it’s not like the past two decades have seen a dearth of great action filmmaking. Why not “Ship’s Mast” from Death Proof or the centerpiece car chase from Drive? What exactly is it about Tom Cruise pawing his way up the side of the world’s tallest building? 

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Final Predictions: Supporting Actress, Foreign Film, and Sound Categories

by Nathaniel R

Expecting a high nomination count for "First Man" even if it misses Best PictureRunning out of time we are! So here are the final predictions for six more categories!

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
We've been over and over this one in our brains, trying to figure out that fifth spot (we don't believe, as some panicky folks do, that Regina King is in any danger of missing for Beale Street). In the end we're defaulting to Claire Foy in First Man who's been there all along. Primarily because she's been there all along and these things have a way of sticking if you're considered solidly in for months, even if you start losing steam toward the end of the season. We expect First Man to have a high nomination count despite predicting it to miss Best Picture and Claire Foy has remained visible all season. Sorry, Margot Robbie...

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OFCS Winners

by Nathaniel R

Mission: Impossible - Fallout was one of only 2 films to win multiple prizes from the OFCS that was not on their top ten list (the other was Black Panther)

The Online Film Critics Society (a couple of TFE's contributors are among their 283 members) have announced their winners for their 22nd annual awards.  Alfonso Cuarón's Roma continues its critical dominance by taking 4 prizes including both best foreign film and best film. Other multiple winners include Black Panther, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, If Beale Street Could Talk, First Reformed, and Hereditary. Four films on their top ten list were shut out of winning any prize: The Favourite,  You Were Never Really Here, Eighth Grade, and Suspiria...  five if you count their #2 film BlacKkKlansman  but we figure the lifetime achievement award for Spike Lee covers that one. The complete list of winners follows after the jump...

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More top ten lists for your reading pleasure...

List after list every day now. Wheeee,  we love this time of year even as we wish the majority of critics would actually wait for the last week of the year or the first week of the new year to do their top ten lists. Nobody has seen enough by early December is our feeling. But anyway here are a few more lists to check out from popular critics and sites...

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