The Photograph (2020)

Directed by Stella Meghie. Starring Lakeith Stanfield, Issa Rae, Chanté Adams, Y’lan Noel, Rob Morgan, Lil Rel Howery, Teyonah Parris, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Courtney B. Vance, Chelsea Peretti. [R]

While investigating the life of a deceased photographer in New Orleans, reporter Stanfield embarks on a romance with her disaffected daughter (Rae). These scenes are intercut with flashbacks showing how the photographer (Adams) chose to pursue her career in New York over a relationship with the man she loves (Noel). Slow-boil romantic drama eschews theatrics and stereotyping for a meditative, mature vibe, but there’s a detached precision to the chronological construction and lush visuals that also discourages commitment from the viewer, never raising the stakes and rarely feeding the genre’s melodramatic mouth—there aren’t very many layers to peel back, and no great revelations to strengthen the connections and shaky parallels between the two timelines. Clever details in the contemporary courtship practice, art community pretentiousness, and the subtle humor and contrition in some of the key supporting players (e.g., Stanfield’s married-with-kids brother (Howery), and Morgan as the older version of Noel’s character) keep things interesting enough to get through the occasional passage that almost drearily drags through the motions. Sly, jazz-tinged score by Robert Glasper.

67/100