Kodachrome is a 2018 drama about the final days of the admired photo development system known as Kodachrome, where a father and son hit the road in order to reach a Kansas photo lab before it closes its doors for good.
Sometimes what makes the routines a little more bearable is an unexpected surprise and as such, to see the tired old Hollywood road movie – all but worn to a nub – get lifted by something new in the formula or better yet, a great performance, is just that surprise. With Mark Raso‘s newest film, Kodachrome, it’s the standout work from Jason Sudeikis, who takes what we’ve all seen a hundred times before and makes it something special. The movie may not quite be as impactful a film as it could have been, but as a Netflix exclusive, it’s one of the better titles available on the streaming service and well worth adding to your list.
Matt Ryder (Sudeikis) is a long time record producer who is on his last leg, swift changes in the market making the business about the artist rather than the music. About to lose his job unless he can bring in one last big client, he’s got no choice but to find a way to get back in the game. This is precisely when he finds a strange woman in his office, she Zoe Kern (Elizabeth Olsen), the caregiver and nurse to Ben (Ed Harris), a once famous photographer who has a few months left to live. He’s also Matt’s father, the two long estranged, but Ben wants to reconcile by having his son drive him to the last Kodachrome developer in the world so he can put on one last show. Using the trip as chance to make a musical connection, Matt agrees and the men work their way cross country trying to mend fences that seem all too splintered to matter.
As expected, there are plenty of landmarks in Kodachrome that many in the genre have passed before, creating opportunities for the characters to discover how much they’ve changed while trying to heal old wounds. The McGuffin here is a set of four old undeveloped film canisters from Ben, the contents of which he doesn’t recall, and as the processing chemicals to expose them are no longer available, it leaves this one place in Kansas left to get it done, which is only days away from closing its doors. Time, in every sense of the word, pressing.
So now the trio are on a schedule but have time to make a few detours, such as to Ben’s younger brother, Dean (Bruce Greenwood) and his wife Sarah (Wendy Crewson), who actually raised Matt for a number of years after Matt’s mother died and have for some reason left his room entirely untouched so it looks exactly as it did when he was in school. It’s here where the first sparks between Zoe and Matt get lit, and then, in a jarring moment of heartbreak, a family secret is finally revealed.
All this leads to the eventual conflicts and emotional bonding it all sort of is forced to comply with, but is greatly boosted by some really strong performances that without a doubt earn much of its sentimental power. In fact, even with the formula well-followed, there’s a kind of comfort in it that allows such good work from the cast to really make this click as it does. Harris and Olsen are terrific, but it’s Sudeikis especially who does some of the best work of his career, the former funnyman fast becoming one of my favorite dramatic actors. While Kodachrome plays it safe with a few contrived moments, it is genuinely earnest and strikes more often than it misses.