FOLLOWING FILMS

Today on The Following Films Podcast, I’m joined by cinematographer Martin Ruhe. Martin’s latest film, The Amateur, is a tense, grounded thriller, and we spend a lot of time talking about how he helped shape its unique look and feel. We also get into his earlier work, like the beautifully shot Control, and how his collaborations with George Clooney kicked off with The American and later continued with The Tender Bar. It was a real pleasure hearing Martin break down his process, how he approaches working with directors, and how he keeps pushing himself creatively from project to project.

THE AMATEUR , the latest addition to 20th Century Studios’ slate of thrillers, is an unflinching, globe-trotting ride of vengeance, loss, and redemption—anchored by a riveting performance from Rami Malek. Directed with clinical precision by James Hawes and adapted from Robert Littell’s novel by screenwriters Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli, this espionage thriller smartly straddles the line between cerebral spy drama and pulse-pounding action. Malek plays Charlie Heller, a brilliant but socially withdrawn CIA decoder working in the shadowy corners of Langley—quite literally, as his office is buried in the agency’s basement. Living a life of quiet purpose, Charlie is no field agent—he’s the kind of man whose superpower is linguistic logic and algorithmic fluency. But everything changes when his wife is killed in a terrorist bombing in London, a gut-wrenching sequence that hits like a sucker punch in the film’s opening act. The tragedy pushes Charlie out of his intellectual shell and into a ...