Matt Flannery's clearest strength is knowing how to film a fight. His cinematography on The Raid gives the performers room to work; the writing he shares with Gareth Evans on Gangs of London is considerably less assured.
Fi1m perspective
In The Raid (2011), the camera moves quickly enough to keep pace with the fighters, but we can still follow an exchange of blows. Matt Flannery and fellow cinematographer Dimas Imam Subhono use long, wide takes that give the performers space and let their movements register. Gareth Evans, directing and editing, keeps the cuts from breaking those movements into unreadable pieces. We were exhilarated by the speed of Iko Uwais's fighting because we could see what he was doing. The characters are thin and the action sometimes repeats itself, but this is work we recommend with confidence.
The collaboration with Evans runs through Merantau (2009), The Raid 2 (2014) and Apostle (2018), all of which Flannery photographed. The last took his cinematography beyond pure action and into horror. His move into long-form television came with Gangs of London (2020), which he co-created and co-wrote with Evans, while also photographing early episodes. Across that move, the preference for physical action remains easy to recognise. The series' fights are inventive enough to make the familiar business of threats and divided loyalties feel secondary.
The writing of Gangs of London is where our enthusiasm needs a qualification. Across the opening series' nine episodes, declarations of loyalty and familiar gangland threats too often have to sustain conversations that offer little pleasure in themselves. The family melodrama keeps insisting on its importance, and the quieter stretches can drag even when there are competing interests to untangle. It would be unfair to assign those weaknesses to Flannery alone. What we can say is that the fighting produces more convincing results than the efforts to make us care consistently about the families.
We still recommend Gangs of London to action enthusiasts, particularly for its inventive fights and Sope Dirisu's presence. That recommendation depends on finding its graphic violence part of the attraction rather than something to endure. Begin with The Raid, and pay attention to how much of each exchange survives the cut.
Biography
Matt Flannery is a British cinematographer and writer. He has frequently collaborated with director Gareth Evans, serving as director of photography on Merantau (2009), The Raid: Redemption (2011) and The Raid 2 (2014).
His other cinematography credits include Apostle (2018), Umma (2022) and the television series Gangs of London (2020), on which he is also credited as writer and creator. He has received a BAFTA nomination and other awards recognition for his work.
