Sarah explains that it was before she and Dean dated, which does little to assuage Dean's anger. Ben irritates Dean and Sarah at breakfast by mentioning that he and Sarah once had a sexual relationship. The next morning, Zooey is awakened by Ben, who has fallen in the bathroom and needs help to stand. He sleeps on the floor, and they end up sharing stories of their failed marriages. Zooey and Matt bond over Matt's old music collection, and later a drunk Matt leans in to kiss her, but falls off the bed. In Ohio, the group visits Ben's brother Dean and Dean's wife Sarah, who were Matt's surrogate parents following his mother's death. Matt, Ben and Zooey start the journey, and Ben insists on taking back roads so he can take photos and enjoy the scenery. Ben has several rolls he wants to have processed before he dies, and Dwayne's will stop in the near future because Kodak no longer makes the required dyes.īen's manager Larry persuades Matt to take the trip by arranging a meeting between Matt and the Spare Sevens, a band he has been trying to sign. Though they have not spoken in over ten years, Ben has requested that Matt drive him to Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas, the last shop that develops Kodachrome film. His father's assistant and nurse Zooey informs him that his father Ben, a famous photographer, is terminally ill. Matt reluctantly agrees, but harbors no illusions that he and the old man will ever resolve their grievances.In late 2010, Matt Ryder is a record company A&R representative who is in danger of losing his job after his company's biggest client signs with another label. Ben wants to take one last trip to Parsons, Kansas, so he can develop some rolls of film before the world’s only remaining Kodachrome lab closes its doors. The digital age also feels like the end of an era for Matt’s father, Ben (Ed Harris), a famous photographer who shoots exclusively on celluloid.įollowing a grim diagnosis for Ben and after years of estrangement, Matt is approached by his father’s assistant to accompany them on a personalized pilgrimage. An A&R man for a boutique record label, Matt’s feeling increasingly irrelevant as the music business grows more shallow and myopic. Matt Ryder (Jason Sudeikis) is only in his thirties, but technology is already wreaking havoc on his life.
Even Paul Simon, with his ‘Kodachrome’ song, couldn’t stop the death of a legendary film and the onslaught of a culture of ‘selfies’. © Chalmers Butterfield 1949 – Look at the colors and look at the age!Īll that said,….I’ll see it anyway. Although, Leicaphiles will love the Leica M4-P Ed Harris sports in the movie.
But if you want an actual movie about legendary photographers and photography, then you should probably get a copy of Sebastiao Salgado’s “ Looking Back at You” or Helmut Newton’s “ Frames from the Edge“. The movie may be great, and I really like the acting prowess of an Ed Harris. I always think the Slim Aarons of the world did us a disservice by flaunting their luscious palettes that I nostalgically call “my Kodachrome dreams”. However, although I haven’t seen it, I have surmised it has very little to do with the actual film, and more to do with the end of an era.
Or, as they would so rightly reflect in the American south,…”I do believe I have the vapors, kind sir.” Well, if it’s on the internet, it must be true. With fantasy rumors swirling around the internet of the imminent return of Kodachrome, this timely movie got every analogue film photographer weak in the knees.
I would guess this was the universally favorite film of every color photographer from 1935 until it’s demise in 2010.