"Every filmmaker in Hollywood worth his final cut has a signature visual flourish that functions something like a filmic fingerprint."

"For Martin Scorsese, it’s the long, uninterrupted tracking shot. For John Woo, the balletic deployment of two-handed gun violence. Wes Anderson never met a painterly tableau he didn’t like. And Steven Spielberg favors the slow zoom in just about every one of his movies. J.J. Abrams, meanwhile...."