The Photograph (2019) (cinema, theater, drama, director)

[BajanYankee]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=954b9vLAT6Y

[BajanYankee]

This movie isn't good. It also isn't bad.

I'll start with the good. At $16 million, the budget for this move is not "low" by any stretch of the imagination, and that shows in the cinematography. Stella Meghie is a young but talented director (Everything, Everything and Grown-ish) who has a bright future ahead of her.

Here's the bad.

This movie will naturally draw comparisons to 1997's "Love Jones" starring Larenz Tate and Nia Long since that was really the first artsy, all Black romcom, so I'll try to judge this movie on its own merits without using "Love Jones" as a benchmark. But the striking contrast between "Love Jones" (as well as several other movies of this genre) and "The Photograph" is the notable absence of conflict and dramatic tension in the latter. It is virtually non-existent. Whereas most romantic movies involve characters who do fall deeply in love at some point, the characters in this movie do not move far beyond the "I think I maybe kind of like you and would like to continue getting to know you" point. We don't see either character (Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield) really expose themselves to the slings and arrows of love. The movie ultimately feels non-committal.

All I'll say about the acting was that I did not leave the theater convinced that Rae and Stanfield had deep feelings for each other, but that could be as much a function of the writing as it is their acting.

Overall, this movie is bad enough where I would definitely NOT recommend seeing it in the theater, but good enough where I MIGHT recommend it if you're stuck in the house during a snowstorm and want something on in the background as you fold laundry.

[Exitus Acta Probat]

It's not the same without Def Leppard doing it.

[foxyknoxy]

Awful and dullllll