Russ T. Alsobrook photographs comedy with respect for the people making fools of themselves. We admire his restraint: faces get the attention, and ordinary surroundings make the embarrassment harder to dismiss.
Fi1m perspective
In Superbad (2007), the boys’ embarrassed faces deserve more attention than the rooms around them, and Russ T. Alsobrook gives it to them. His cinematography leaves Jonah Hill and Michael Cera’s conversation in charge, while Chris L. Spellman’s suburban settings make their panic horribly plausible. We laughed and winced because those faces make the boys’ fear of social failure so recognisable. Greg Mottola’s film is a persuasive case for keeping the photography out of the joke’s way.
The same patience serves Freaks and Geeks (1999), an earlier television credit in which Alsobrook shares cinematography duties with Bill Pope. Their framing allows an uncomfortable reaction to matter without making it another gag. Philip Messina and Jefferson Sage give the school the ordinary, slightly tiresome look of somewhere its pupils have to attend again tomorrow. The pace occasionally drags, but the camera’s attention to the young cast helps make the waiting worthwhile.
The shift towards mainstream feature comedy in the 2000s also brought Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008). Alsobrook lets the script determine the style rather than assuming every comedy needs the same polish. For Tammy (2014), he adjusted the lighting in practical locations to follow changes in character. Gaffer Curtiss Bradford has worked with him for more than 30 years.
New Girl (2011) gave him a longer test: he served as director of photography for all 135 episodes and directed four. The programme becomes worth returning to when its friendships take precedence over Jess’s awkwardness, and its photographic consistency serves that ensemble. There are limits to what a cinematographer can repair: the overworked romantic plotting remains overworked. Nor can attentive framing in Superbad give the girls the attention the writing owes them. Start with Freaks and Geeks for the faces, then Superbad for what happens when the boys try to look confident.
Biography
Russ T. Alsobrook is an American cinematographer. He was born on 2 September 1946 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. He began working in the film industry after leaving college, initially in camera and electrical departments, before becoming a director of photography.
His credits include the television series Freaks and Geeks (1999) and New Girl (2011–2018), on which he also directed episodes. Feature films as director of photography include Superbad (2007), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Role Models (2008), Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009), Tammy (2014), Blockers (2018) and All My Life (2020).
Alsobrook is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers.
