The Photographer

Occasionally, surfing through the late night flicks, you run across a gemstone that grabs you by the pajama lapels and shakes you awake until you've finished reading the credits: such was my reaction to The Photographer a few nights ago. Jeremy Stein made an absolutely enchanting film: ignore comments here to the contrary.

The theme is that one can never anticipate how unexpected turns in our lives will contribute to our personal growth. In this case, Max overcomes a form of creative paralysis and re-discovers himself and his art through chance encounters with complete strangers. Shot in New York City's seedy back streets (lower East Side?) the collective odyssey of Max and his new-found pals (the supporting cast are very good) laces in bar scenes that, for me at least, are archetypal moments when we have chance encounters with people who turn out to have so much in common with us in hidden ways that it makes us reflect on who we really are most comfortable with, why we made the choices we've made, and what the hell we're doing with our lives.

There's a kind of magic in this film (the search for Violet) that isn't overplayed but that's important to tying everything up into a neat little package. Terrific score (Andrew Hollander) and beautiful cinematography (Vanja Cernjul) sustain the mood throughout. If you don't come away feeling better about life after seeing this film, you've missed it.

Jeremy Stein, who wrote and directed, is very talented indeed, and I hope this one is available on DVD: it's one you want in the library.

I think it's really sad when someone watches a movie, and when it's not all Hollywood bells and whistles totally smashes it to pieces in a review! I purchased this movie used, mainly because some of the actors (Maggie) and the name of the movie - and of course, interest - what could have happened to this guy to ruin his life over losing some photographs?!?!? Eventually, you realize the underlying message of the movie....Your vision is already within you...It's a good message, even though parts of the movie might seem far fetched, I liked the odd-balls all ending up befriending one another, I liked the visuals of the NY street scenes. Not all movies that are indie suck, you just have to LOOK to see what is really there. And by the way, I have done a gallery showing with only 8 X 10's.......

This movie is a dream-like parable of a pretentious N.Y. photographer who has learned that art must come deep from the heart and be authentic. He has lost his native ability in the glamour of the artistic "in-crowd" and finds his way with the help of underclass mentors. The importance of his pictures pale in comparision to the image of life he derives in his journey.

This film is definitely an indie, but it was really quite good.

The story starts with Max (Reg Rogers), who was the big thing in the NYC photography world a year ago, but has lost his talent. He needs to somehow produce 10 brilliant shots in one day, or else he risks losing everything. Max manages to procure these 10 masterpieces after a mysterious man leaves them in a bar. Unfortunately, someone steals them from Max, too.

The majority of the movie follows Max on his quest to recover the 10 photos, which have been inexplicably scattered throughout the city. He meets up with several interesting characters, including Maggie Gyllenhaal and Rob Campbell. Gyllenhaal's character is especially good. She plays an aspiring newscaster, obsessive-compulsive daughter of a clairvoyant (sounds confusing, but it's pretty funny).

This movie is nothing huge, but I really liked it. The shots of the city at night are pretty, and all of the quirky characters are likeable.

It's not a great film but it's got a lot of fine moments. The best performance of that whole movie is easily, Maggie Gyllenhaal. She plays this kooky, fortune teller-wannabe who is a neatfreak and likes to broadcast the news while using her feather duster as a microphone. Every scene she's in is worth watching. I recommend to the thousands (and thousands) of Gyllenhaalics.