Cinematography

The recently completed remake of the 1974 Charles Bronson vigilante thriller, Death Wish, has undergone an exceedingly long gestation period and painful birth. Media reports of “creative differences” involving scripting and casting have contributed to years-long controversy surrounding a film whose trailer stoked a social media firestorm.

We’re looking at the backs of two heads in a moving car, as a boy known as Little rides with a man he just met. The man, played with understated finesse by Mahershala Ali (who won an Oscar for the role), turns his head repeatedly to the silent boy beside him, but Little (Alex R. Hibbert) stoically refuses to speak. We are struck by the distance between them—the gap made even more pronounced by the extended width of the screen.