PROVOKR PICK: THE PHOTOGRAPH

Well, it’s here, Valentine’s Day. Of course, we had to make our PROVOKR Pick a romantic movie. We already covered some alternative films you can enjoy on the day of love. But for those of you who have been shot by Cupid’s arrow, or like to keep it traditional, The Photograph is the Valentine’s Day movie for you.

Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield costar in this romantic drama as Mae and Michael. Mae is reeling from the sudden death of her mother, Christina (Chanté Adams), a famous photographer, with whom she wasn’t particularly close. Upon her death, Christina left Mae a stack of vintage photographs and a letter that reads, “My daughter, I put my love into photographs, pictures, took space in my heart instead of people.” It puts Mae on a path of discovering who her mother was as a young woman.

The Photograph, is told through parallel timelines (the past and the present), and both tell different love stories. In the past we follow Christina and watch her as she falls in love. In the present, we meet Mae, who falls in love with Michael, a reporter doing a story on her mother. Mae worries that, like her mother, she is unable to fully let herself fall in love and be vulnerable with someone.

While Mae might be unsure if she can succeed in love, we can tell from the trailer that Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield have sizzling chemistry. The electrical energy between them is off the charts. The Photograph is sure to be a V-Day movie for the ages.

See The Photograph, in theaters, Valentine’s Day 2020.