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Zack Snyder's 'The Last Photograph' Review: A Violent but Human Action Drama at Toronto Film Festival
Confirmed
In Short: The Last Photograph, directed by Zack Snyder, marks a departure from his superhero films, offering a gritty and intimate action drama that explores themes of revenge and humanity.
Though Zack Snyder is known for his blockbuster superhero films, The Last Photograph is a bold step into a more personal and grounded narrative. According to Deadline, Snyder is sharpening his storytelling skills without relying on the safety net of superhero pyrotechnics. The film follows ex-DEA agent Ethan Black, played by Stuart Martin, who is on a mission to track down the killers of the woman he loves, a photographer named Joe Wallace, portrayed by Fra Fee.
The film's narrative is driven by a series of 'last' photographs, each with its own personal significance. As Ethan and Joe embark on a perilous journey, the film delves into the complexities of their characters, with Joe's past and motivations gradually revealed. Martin's performance is described as surprisingly plausible, bordering on the edge of absurdity but maintaining a sense of plausibility.
Despite the film's violent and dark themes, The Last Photograph is praised for its human elements. The Hollywood Reporter notes that Snyder has been developing the idea for two decades, and the result is a strikingly intimate story anchored in photography, brought to life by Hans Zimmer's musical score and Snyder's striking cinematography.
What's confirmed
- Though Zack Snyder is known for his blockbuster superhero films, The Last Photograph is a bold step into a more personal and grounded narrative. According to Deadline, Snyder is sharpening his storytelling skills without relying on the safety net of superhero pyrotechnics. The film follows ex-DEA agent Ethan Black, played by Stuart Martin, who is on a mission to track down the killers of the woman he loves, a photographer named Joe Wallace, portrayed by Fra Fee.
- The film's narrative is driven by a series of 'last' photographs, each with its own personal significance. As Ethan and Joe embark on a perilous journey, the film delves into the complexities of their characters, with Joe's past and motivations gradually revealed. Martin's performance is described as surprisingly plausible, bordering on the edge of absurdity but maintaining a sense of plausibility.
- Despite the film's violent and dark themes, The Last Photograph is praised for its human elements. The Hollywood Reporter notes that Snyder has been developing the idea for two decades, and the result is a strikingly intimate story anchored in photography, brought to life by Hans Zimmer's musical score and Snyder's striking cinematography.
What's still developing
- Rather, it is the fact that his sister-in-law — the woman in what will become a series of several “last” photographs, each with their own personal meaning — was the love of his life, leaving him after their one illicit fling with a Polaroid bearing the cryptic line “This is a photograph from that other world”.
- Bent on tracking down the killers, Ethan flies over and heads to the photographic agency that represents Joe’s work.
- Joe doesn’t take much convincing, not just because he needs the money, but because it soon becomes clear that a road trip with Ethan will feed both his adrenaline jones and cater to his prurient need for sensation, being largely deadened to the world of human relationships.
- Along the way, Ethan opens up more and more about his past as a former DEA agent, telling stories that sometimes border on something out of Tropic Thunder, but as unlikely as it might sound, Martin is a surprisingly plausible as a soldier gone native, and whose once-tight bond with the local community has led him into the increasingly perilous situation he now faces.
- Toward the beginning of Tim Blake Nelson’s “ The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd, ” a downhearted but defiantly humane prison drama that skips around in time as it maps an Oklahoma man’s journey from childhood poverty to his taxpayer-funded murder at the hands of the state, someone comments that people don’t get out of prison without a little help.
- The more sympathetic he becomes, the more we learn about why he’s been sentenced to lethal injection; the more we learn about the monstrousness of his actions, the more aggressively Nelson’s screenplay — inspired by unspecified true events — insists upon his fundamental humanity.
- A passion project that Snyder and writer Kurt Johnstad have been working on at least since 2011, the film is his most intimate and grounded yet.
- Hilariously, the film begins with a topless woman having sex with Joseph while he shoots a photograph of a non-existent butterfly.