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Showing posts with label Sam Esmail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sam Esmail. Show all posts

Friday, 2 September 2016

Amazing cinematography in "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 9


 Sam Esmail's series has always been visually stunning with inventive framing and compositions. This week was no exception. The shot with Elliot and dad outside the prison, camera mounted at their feet.
Photograph USA Network
Photograph USA Network
The scenes with Phillip Price facing off White Rose were equally stunning. One shot has the two umbrella men taking up only 5% of the screen. In another, they are strolling through a formal garden. Classically composed. Reminded me of the shot in Resnais's "Last Day in Marienbad" combined with a surrealist painting.

Friday, 21 August 2015

"Mr Robot" - the best new US TV show of 2015?

Not from HBO, Netflix or even FX or Showtime, but from USA Network. Who would have guessed it? This show grabs you from the start and then provides constant twists and turns. The viewer is never treated like an idiot.
A savvy script, moody NYC locales and a standout performance by Rami Malek (the pharaoh in the "Night at the Museum" films) as the dysfunctional super hacker, Elliot, make this engrossing television.
Some of Elliot's rants (to himself or his shrink) are priceless. Christian Slater (the go-to guy in 80's and 90's if you wanted a cool, smart alek, e.g. "Heathers" and "Pump up the Volume") still has it. Nice to see him in something substantial, rather than voiceovers.
Another intriguing character is badass/unhinged Tyrell Wellick. Swedish actor, Martin Wallström, would make a great Bond villain. He reminds me of a young Christopher Walken.
Some scenes knock your socks off. In Episode 9, for example there is a lovely transition of time sequence showing the Mr Robot computer shopfront from 1984 to present day (shades of the dress shop in the 1960 version of "The Time Machine"). I also liked Christian Slater telling a customer the benefits of a 400 MB hard drive.
Writer/director Sam Esmail can do no wrong.