Synopsis
Jason Sudeikis, Elizabeth Olsen, and Ed Harris star in this touching road movie that doubles as an elegy for analog in the digital age.
Times change, film formats come and go — but familial grudges never fade. Featuring vivid performances from Jason Sudeikis, Elizabeth Olsen, and four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris (also at this year's Festival in mother!), and shot entirely on film stock, this road movie from director Mark Raso is a moving portrait of a father and son learning to truly see each other.
Matt Ryder (Sudeikis) is only in his thirties, but technology is already wreaking havoc on his life. An A&R man for a boutique record label, Matt's feeling increasingly irrelevant as the music business grows more shallow and myopic. The digital age also feels like the end of an era for Matt's father, Ben (Harris), a famous photographer who shoots exclusively on celluloid. Following a grim diagnosis for Ben and after years of estrangement, Matt is approached by his father's assistant, Zooey (Olsen), to accompany them on a personalized pilgrimage. 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. Matt reluctantly agrees, but harbours no illusions that he and the old man will ever resolve their grievances.
Kodachrome is both heartfelt and tough. Ben is no angel, and Matt will need more than a pleasant drive to bury the hatchet. Still, time and travel have a way of putting things in perspective, and these two may just get somewhere before the road comes to its end.