Cinematographer Sam Levy Talks ‘Confess, Fletch’ & How Its Style Pays Homage to Classic Movies

Awards Daily talks to cinematographer Sam Levy about helping create the fresh look for Confess, Fletch. 

It’s been more than 30 years since Chevy Chase donned a Lakers cap and white sneakers in Fletch Lives. So with Greg Mottola’s reboot Confess, Fletch starring Jon Hamm in the titular role, it’s obviously time for a new look (don’t worry—he still wears the Lakers cap and sneakers!).

“I really love this movie,” says cinematographer Sam Levy. “It’s based on a different Fletch novel that Gregory Mcdonald wrote. It doesn’t have a lot to do with the original Chevy Chase movie, but it’s definitely related.”

Although it looks completely different. The original beloved Fletch series was almost like a cartoon come to life, with Chase wearing disguises and personas like a human Bugs Bunny. Mottola had something else in mind.

“Greg Mottola is very serious about designing a really distinctive look. A lot of people say that’s what they want and maybe they do, but Greg is very sophisticated visually.”

Jon Hamm: The New Cary Grant?

When it came to supporting Mottola’s vision, Levy and the director talked a lot about movies from the ’70s, photographed by the great cinematographer Gordon Willis, who famously shot all the Godfather movies, Annie Hall, and All the President’s Men. For Levy, Confess, Fletch made him think of another classic film.

“I personally thought of the Alfred Hitchcock Cary Grant movie To Catch a Thief. Working with Jon Hamm, who’s also a producer, he really wanted an edgy-looking movie. Not something too bright or an all-caps ‘comedy’. Because Jon Hamm is very athletic, it’s fun to just watch him move around. And there are sequences in Confess, Fletch where he is really sneaking around at night and setting off explosives. It reminded me of Cary Grant sneaking around rooftops in To Catch a Thief. Jon is iconic in the same way that Cary Grant is. He’s beloved and a beautiful man who’s fun to watch. Without saying a word, watching him walk down the street is super interesting. Those were the beginnings of this visual conversation.”

Levy organized color summits with Mottola, production designer Alex DiGerlando, and costume designer Wendy Chuck, where he’d print out ideas and invite them to bring whatever they wanted to bring to enhance the conversation. Collaboratively, they would pull from different sources to get at what the color palette should be and how restrained it should be.

“Alex would say, ‘Let’s not make this dogmatic, where it’s two colors or some colors for particular characters.’ That was a great thing to realize that we don’t have to assign colors and restrict this palette in that way, but we can still be purposeful with color, light, and shadow. As a cinematographer, it’s helpful to know where we stand in terms of shadows and brightness. Jon and Greg wanted the movie to feel dark, and it was very important to figure out, dark is good, but we have to determine specifically what kind of dark. That was a discussion all the time.”

Comedy is a Serious Business

From the very first scene in the film, you know you’re not in a typical comedy. It’s filmed like it could be a drama. . .until Jon Hamm’s Fletch starts talking to detectives Monroe (Roy Wood Jr.) and Griz (Ayden Mayeri).

“It should really feel serious like the book. Fletch’s highly ironic point of view needs to be filtered through this serious lens. Something interesting I learned with Greta Gerwig when we did Lady Bird, we talked a lot about not worrying about the comedy, that the comedy would come and we wanted to make something cinematic and serious and not to worry about, Is this joke gonna land? Are they gonna laugh here? At the end of the day, Lady Bird is a comedy, people are gonna laugh, but we never talked about that stuff.”

Confess, Fletch‘s sharp script and performances (Kyle MacLachlan, Annie Mumolo, Lucy Punch, John Slattery!) bring the laughs on their own.

“If it’s funny on the page, then my job is to really stay out of the way. It’s good to have this conversation. It is important to some filmmakers that the visual architecture really is supporting the comedy and it’s deliberate in that way, but it wasn’t like that with this Fletch movie because of all these other genres interwoven.”

With 11 books in the Fletch series, is another movie on the way? There are a lot more mysteries to explore for I.M. Fletcher, and Hamm may have finally found a post-Mad Men niche that deftly utilizes his charisma and comedic skills.

“Well, Megan, you should call Paramount. I feel like people will listen to you! I would love to do another one. I had a lot of fun doing this.”

Confess, Fletch is now playing in theaters.