Matt is an A&R guy at a music label but he doesn’t have many As in his R, so he’s on his last legs. It’s a particularly bad time for his dad to be dying, but Ben has never been a thoughtful father, so why start now? Ben’s nurse\assistant insists that the liver cancer is determined to kill him, and Ben’s last wish is that his son drive him to Kansas to have some rolls of film developed. So, in the last days of kodachrome, Matt (Jason Sudeikis) and Ben (Ed Harris) hit the open road in an “analog” car – just a desperate man, his estranged father, and the nurse (Elizabeth Olsen) who judges him for it. Fun times!
I have a real problem with movies about shitty fathers seeking redemption when the timing’s convenient, and I bet you can guess why. Good thing the acting’s real solid, or else my barf mechanisms would have been unforgivably activated. Instead they went for my tear ducts, but they did not succeed. And Bell commercials succeed, for chocolate’s sake! It is NOT that hard. But aside from the Harris-Sudeikis team, this movie was so paint by numbers I’m like 98% certain Bob Ross rolled over in his grave. And I’m only 30% certain he’s dead! [I just Googled it – he is]
Anyway, I sort of thought I’d like this film but never got there. Turns out, I’m not sentimental about obsolete photography or deadbeat dads. It’s the movie version of a guy in a fedora: trying too damn hard. Trying too hard to be a ‘festival favourite’. Instead it’s just a Netflix nonevent with good intentions and zero originality. I haven’t quite reached my word count so doobidy boobidy dunk. Kodachrome’s got no junk in its trunk. The end: a review by Jay.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
“doobidy boobidy dunk”…if that doesn’t just sum it up right there!
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You have a word count? I love this review.
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Great review! I still gotta watch it tho! 😉
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A great review, but that Bob Ross comment had me howling!
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Haha. Way too many of these kind of flicks… you gotta assume shitty dads have gotten the message by now.
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I love how you break things down! Ed Harris might push this over the edge into give it a try territory though 🙂
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It’s a shitty character but a great performance.
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I watched this yesterday! Wasn’t expecting too much but it was watchable thanks to Harris & Sudeikis, and I thought Jason did a really good job. Agree though that it didn’t quite ‘get there’ with anything amazing. x
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Love the Bob Ross joke. I think I will give this one a pass also. I’m not one for running around at the last minute to make my peace. Do it as quick as you can or don’t bother. Another great review.
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Wait what? Bob Ross is dead??? Damn! 😦
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Well I see I’m not the only one who missed the memo! (He died in July 1995, perhaps we were quite busy that summer?)
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Lol at the last lines. Thanks for the 4th-WALL BREAKAGE!!!!! WHOAAAAA
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Just between you and me: it’s still only 299 words.
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Good intentions but missed the mark, from the sounds of it.
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Another addition to the, ‘crappy parent wants redemption before they die, but not really and only after they’re dead so they don’t have to accept responsibility for their actions while they’re alive’, trope, eh?
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Pretty much exactly. A very popular indie theme. Getting tired of it.
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Um, why would he have to drive to Kansas to get the film developed? That detail lost me.
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Because it was in kodachrome, and that was the last place still doing it, but only for a few more days. Kodachrome was about to be obsolete.
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I love your written ending…hahahaaa. I will give this a try but you are right about dead beat dads. My dad was wonderful but my husband’s dad was a real despicable character who, when dying, contacted my husband. I was hoping what one sees through pink tulips on the silver screen but my husband knew better. Within that first meeting, I realized that if he thought this was going to get him into heaven it just cemented his place in Hell. The one good thing is all the anger my husband had seemed to just leave in tha5 last month he dealt with his dad before the SOB kicked the bucket. If they placed that reality on the screen, people wouldn’t like it.
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Real life is always messier than in the movies.
And I hate these types of people – they want to die in peace, so they dredge shit up for the people they’re leaving behind, which is cruel and selfish, but what else is new? In death as in life I suppose. I’m sorry your husband had to live it.
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I was hoping this might be a better film. It’s too bad, but I always trust you three reviewers. . . I liked Jason Sudeikas in that film where he is a professor and goes to interview the widow and falls in love with her. It was a sweet and quirky film called, “Tumbledown.” 💕
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Another one I’ve scrolled past several times. I’ll continue skipping over it. Thanks again!
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Slick writing here, Jay. Another tongue lashing tour de force! Very enjoyable. LOL’d at the Bob Ross bit 😂
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I found nothing to admire in this film; irritating characters, contrived narrative, oozing masculine sentimentality….a film of unfulfulled potential.
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