Film

Kodachrome

Name: Kodachrome
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: 2017
Cast: Ed Harris, Jason Sudeikis, Elizabeth Olsen, Bruce Greenwood, Wendy Crewson

Family drama

A road movie about an estranged son who drives his dying father across America to develop film at the world's last Kodachrome lab. It's gentle and funny, built on the small logistics of reconciliation rather than grand gestures. For anyone who's felt the sting of distance with someone they love, and anyone drawn to stories where the journey matters more than the destination.

TMDb rating

3.4

If you liked this

Nebraska2013

Bruce Springsteen-aching Americana about an aging man and his son on a road trip. Same quiet devastation, same way it finds grace in ordinary silences and small failures.

But Shot in black and white and genuinely bleak—there's no real warmth here, only the suggestion of it. Demands patience.

About a Boy2002

Finds comedy and genuine tenderness in a relationship between two damaged people learning to care. Similar tonal balance: wry but never cynical, funny but rooted in real hurt.

But The '00s indie-film feel has aged, and the emotional beats hit exactly where you expect them to.

A Man Called Ove2015

Grumpy older man learns to connect, set against a world he doesn't understand changing around him. Same DNA: curmudgeonly, sentimental without schmaltz, about the bridges people build.

But It's very much a book adaptation in the best and worst senses—occasionally treacly, plot-driven rather than character-surprised.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Kodachrome

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Descendants2011

Both are about time running out and what you say (or film) to make it matter. Same emotional emergency structure, different genre temperature.

George Clooney's Hawaii-set film about a father rebuilding his relationship with his kids while his wife dies. It has the same architecture—family crisis forcing reckoning—but channels it through deeper grief and anger. More tonic than Kodachrome's softer approach, but the emotional shape is cousin to cousin.

But Sways toward the sentimental in its final act, and some viewers find Clooney's self-pity grating. Slicker than you might want.

The Leisure Seeker2018

Elderly couple road-trips in an RV while navigating illness and fractured memory. Shares the elegiac mood and the quiet wisdom about what time takes from us.

But Moves slowly and deliberately, which makes sense thematically but requires you to accept a deliberately paced film about aging.

A Ghost Story2017

Meditation on time, loss, and memory told through an unlikely premise. Both films understand that small stories about how we document and hold onto the past can contain everything.

But Abstract and dreamy in a way that will feel obscure if you're expecting narrative clarity. Not everyone's speed.

Sideways2004

Two men on a road trip through California wine country, wrestling with age, failure, and what comes next. Similar warmth and comedy emerging from genuine unhappiness.

But Some of the gender politics haven't aged well, and the tone can feel like it's pitying its characters rather than understanding them.

Begin Again2014

A damaged older man and a younger woman form an unlikely bond while making music. Same register: hopeful without being naive, about second chances that feel earned.

But The film's sentimentality about music and New York can tip into something a bit precious if that's not your sensibility.

The Straight Story1999

David Lynch film about an elderly man riding a lawnmower to reconcile with his estranged brother. Shares the reverence for small journeys and the radical tenderness of Lynch's approach.

But Moves at the speed of an old man on a lawnmower. Tests patience in ways that are meaningful but still difficult.

The Father2020

Anthony Hopkins as a man losing his grip on reality; his son tries to understand and help. Explores care and distance and the terror of becoming a burden to the people you love.

But The disorientation is intentional but relentless, and it's genuinely hard to watch someone you care about disappear.

Boyhood2014

Both are meditations on how we mark time and preserve it. One uses Kodachrome film stock as the metaphor; the other IS that metaphor, stretched across a decade.

Twelve years of the same boy's life, filmed over twelve years. A documentary approach to fiction—time as the actual subject. Kodachrome is about memory and documentation; Boyhood is about the weight and passage of time itself as a tangible thing.

But Three hours of episodic moments that don't build into conventional narrative momentum. Requires you to sit with duration rather than plot.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Both ask: what can we hold onto of the people we love? Kodachrome says film; Synecdoche says art itself, and suggests the project is doomed and necessary anyway.

Charlie Kaufman's film about a theater director building a massive replica of his life inside a warehouse. Obsessed with the impossibility of capturing and recreating the past. Where Kodachrome is tender about documentation, this is anguished and baroque—but the hunger to preserve and understand through art is identical.

But Deliberately confusing, fractally nested, and demanding. The structure itself is the point, and that's exhausting if you're not ready for it.