Photographic Memory
Photographic Memory Image
Metascore
81 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 5 Critics What's this?

until movie release
  • Summary: Filmmaker Ross McElwee finds himself in frequent conflict with his son, a young adult who seems addicted to and distracted by the virtual worlds of the internet. To understand his fractured love for his son, McElwee travels back to St. Quay-Portrieux in Brittany for the first time in decades to retrace his own journey into adulthood. A meditation on the passing of time, the praxis of photography and film, and the digital versus analog divide. (First Run Features)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    Oct 10, 2012
    91
    Photographic Memory is less wry and more melancholy than McElwee's earlier documentaries; it's a lot like his superb 2003 film "Bright Leaves," which was also concerned with family history and the shifting meaning of images.
  2. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Joseph Jon Lanthier
    Oct 8, 2012
    88
    Ross McElwee is less anxious of death itself than of finally comprehending the vast faultiness of the life he's lived.
  3. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Nick Schager
    Oct 9, 2012
    80
    Alternating between time periods and geographic locations, all of it connected by McElwee's narrated thoughts, the film proves a bracing and sometimes uncomfortable peek into private fears and regrets about mortality and missed opportunities. It's also, in its portrait of wayward Adrian, further proof that there's nothing more difficult, frustrating, messy, and insufferable than teenagerdom.

See all 5 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Current Movie Releases

Full List »
  1. Looper
    Metascore: 84
  2. ParaNorman
    Metascore: 72
  3. Premium Rush
    Metascore: 66
  4. Dredd
    Metascore: 59
  5. Lawless
    Metascore: 58
  6. Sparkle
    Metascore: 54
  7. The Expendables 2
    Metascore: 51
  8. Hit and Run
    Metascore: 50
  9. The Odd Life of Timothy Green
    Metascore: 48
  10. Hotel Transylvania
    Metascore: 47
  11. Taken 2
    Metascore: 45
  12. The Possession
    Metascore: 45
  13. Resident Evil: Retribution
    Metascore: 39
  14. House at the End of the Street
    Metascore: 31
All Current Movies »