Sight&Sound - 05.2020

REVIEWS

78 | Sight&Sound | May 2020

Reviewed by

Pamela Hutchinson

Bobbing in and out of

Louisiana in the 1980s and

present-day New York, Stella

Meghie’s The Photograph is

both a girl-meets-boy romance and a maternal

love story. Through a letter, reserved museum

curator Mae (Issa Rae) learns about the life of

her recently deceased mother Christina (Chanté

Adams) – who ran away from Louisiana to NYC

to pursue her career as a photographer – just

as she is falling in love with commitment-shy

journalist Michael (LaKeith Stanfield).

It’s a pleasingly neat dual narrative. The lovers

first meet because Michael’s research for a story

in Louisiana has led him to a man called Isaac

(Rob Morgan) who owns a striking photograph

of Christina. The slow reveal of Christina and

Isaac’s story adds piquancy, and a few instructive

lessons, to the modern-day love-plot in this

beguilingly classical romantic drama.

The Photograph is not afraid to be beautiful.

Careful period styling, gleaming cinematography

from Mark Schwartzbard and a jazzy score give

this film obvious attractions – earning it a seat

next to recent highly aestheticised black romances

such as Barry Jenkins’s If Beale Street Could Talk

(2018) and Melina Matsoukas’s Queen & Slim

(2019). The use of Queens Museum as a setting,

the twin timelines and a storm as a plot device

also recall Todd Haynes’s Wonderstruck (2017).

But there’s more here than prettification.

Stanfield is an impeccably wistful romantic

lead, and he and Rae have an enjoyably relaxed

chemistry, evoking the casual intimacies of

courtship and the jolt of sudden separation. There

are sharp comic turns in the supporting cast:

Kelvin Harrison Jr as his ambitious intern and Lil

Rel Howery as his inquisitive married brother.

Courtney B. Vance is a welcome presence, as

ever, though his role as Mae’s stepdad is largely

to provide exposition and moral support.

Meghie, best known for the romcom The

Weekend (2018), again both writes and directs,

and has turned out a polished gem in the

same emotional vein as Nancy Meyers or

Nora Ephron – with perhaps more urgency

than sentiment. The Louisiana section, and

especially the story of Isaac, a former oil-worker,

pierces the shiny Manhattan bubble of the

lead characters. In a film full of doubles, the

hurricane that devastated his livelihood is

echoed in a storm lashing NYC, which provides

a backdrop to the lovers’ first night together.

Meghie’s next film will reunite her with Rae,

and on this evidence it’s one to look forward

to. If this bittersweet film overextends its

slender plot, it hardly matters: there are

pleasures here worth lingering over.

The Photograph

USA/Japan 2020

Director: Stella Meghie

Certificate 12A 106m 22s

The film cuts between two timelines, the 1980s and the

present. Christina, a young woman in 1980s Louisiana,

falls in love with local man Isaac, but moves to New

York to follow her dream of becoming a photographer.

She is carrying Isaac’s baby, but never tells him he

is a father. In the present, Christina has died and left

a long letter for her daughter Mae, telling her story.

While Mae, a museum curator in New York, is reading

her mother’s life story, she meets Michael, a journalist

interested in Christina’s photographs. They fall in love,

but Michael takes a job in London. Mae visits him,

and they decide to stay together no matter what.

Produced by

Will Packer

James Lopez

Written by

Stella Meghie

Director of

Photography

Mark Schwartzbard

Editor

Shannon Baker Davis

Production Designer

Loren Weeks

Music by/

Piano & Keys

Robert Glasper

Production

Sound Mixer

Allison Jackson

Costume Designer

Keri Langerman

©Universal Studios

Production

Companies

Universal Pictures

presents in

association with

Perfect World

Pictures a Will

Packer Productions

production

A Stella Meghie film

Presented in

association with

Dentsu Inc.

Executive Producers

Stella Meghie

Erika Hampson

Issa Rae

Cast

Issa Rae

Mae Morton

LaKeith Stanfield

Michael Block

Lil Rel Howery

Kyle

Rob Morgan

Isaac Jefferson

Courtney B. Vance

Louis Morton

Chanté Adams

young Christina

Eames

Y’lan Noel

young Isaac Jefferson

Kelvin Harrison Jr

Andy Morrison

Teyonah Parris

Asia

Jasmine Cephas

Jones

Rachel Miller

Rylee Gabrielle King

Sandrine

Phoenix Noelle

Reece

Sofia

Chelsea Peretti

Sara Rodgers

Dolby Digital

In Colour

[2.35:1]

Distributor

Universal Pictures

International

UK & Eire

In development: LaKeith Stanfield, Issa Rae

Elf and safety issues: Onward

Credits and Synopsis

Ian and Barley’s brotherhood. As many

siblings do, the pair have a tumultuous

relationship that is underpinned with real

love and Barley is, really, the surrogate father

Ian had in place of a living biological one.

The bold, detailed animation is up to Pixar’s

usual standards, but more important are Scanlon’s

poignant script and the expressive vocal work,

particularly by Holland and Pratt, who here are

masters of, respectively, the meek and the lovably

dumb. For viewers willing to go along for the

ride, Onward brings pure, uncomplicated joy.

New Mushroomton, present day. Elf Ian Lightfoot

lives with his brother Barley and widowed mother

Laurel in the suburbs. On Ian’s 16th birthday, Barley

gives Ian a magic staff on behalf of their deceased

father. Ian uses it to resurrect his father for 24

hours, but the spell only restores the bottom half

of his body. To restore their father in full, they need

a phoenix gem from a place called Ravenspoint.

Travelling in Barley’s van Guinevere they meet the

human-lion-scorpion manticore Corey at her family

restaurant, where they get a map to Ravenspoint.

Laurel, fearing for her sons’ safety, teams up with

Corey and follows them. The brothers have an

altercation with a motorcycle gang of tiny sprites,

cross a bottomless pit and evade the police. They

enter a huge cave, which eventually brings them

unexpectedly back to a monument outside their own

high school. When Barley tries to conjure the phoenix

gem, a dragon made of rock arises and almost kills

him. Laurel rides to the rescue on the manticore,

killing the dragon. The gem appears; Barley revives

the rest of the boys’ father, while Ian watches.

Producer

Kori Rae

Written by

Dan Scanlon

Jason Headley

Keith Bunin

Original Story

Dan Scanlon

Keith Bunin

Jason Headley

Directors of

Photography

Sharon Calahan

Adam Habib

Editor

Catherine Apple

Production

Designer

Noah Klocek

Music

Jeff Danna

Mychael Danna

Sound Designers

Nia Hansen

Shannon Mills

Animation

Supervisors

Michael Stocker

Rob Duquette

Thompson

Production

Companies

Walt Disney

Studios present a

Pixar Animation

Studios film

Executive Producer

Pete Docter

Voice Cast

Tom Holland

Ian Lightfoot

Chris Pratt

Barley Lightfoot

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Laurel Lightfoot

Octavia Spencer

Corey the Manticore

Ali Wong

Officer Gore

John Ratzenberger

Fenwick,

construction worker

Lena Waithe

Officer Specter

Mel Rodgriguez

Colt Bronco

In Colour

[2.35:1]

Distributor

The Walt Disney

Studios

Credits and Synopsis

Available

on VOD

platforms

in the UK