-Written by Kyle Bain.
It’s only natural to want to look your best on Picture Day, especially when you’ve just started at a new school. So, Casey (Oona Mei Yaffe) looks to improve her looks by piercing her ears–something that her mother is strongly against. Through the typical teenager-mother arguments, Casey is determined to prepare herself for pictures, even if that means losing a part of herself along the way.
Writer-Director Kelly Pike adds depth to this narrative without having to say much at all. With small bits of dialogue and seemingly inconsequential movements, characters grow, ultimately adding to Casey’s narrative. Picture Day is a film that explores the every day through the eyes of a twelve year old. We often feel that we are capable of hiding things from children, whether its emotions or something bigger–and we are equally aware of the fact that children are privy to things beyond what they should be. We sort of exist in the shoes of a child here, understanding the struggles that exist throughout the course of the narrative, without Pike and the characters expliciting expressing what’s occurring. The simplicity and attention to detail is impeccable, helping to create a brilliantly fluid narrative from start to finish.
Sometimes profanity just helps to get your point across in a way that feels truly effective, and in this case it’s important to note that the casting in Picture Day is fucking stellar. Beyond each actor’s ability to embody these characters, to bring them to life, the Elliot family is so aesthetically similar, making Picture Day all the more real, all the more relatable and accessible.
The entirety of Picture Day is accessible–and it’s incredibly important that we be able to access these characters, the bigger picture, and even the niche moments present in the film.
Additionally, our entrance into Picture Day is through drab, familiar, incredibly simplistic visuals. We aren’t thrown into a nightmare by any means, and it’s clear that Pike intentionally avoided the extreme, looking to focus on realism. The visuals are the best example of this throughout, but paired with the familiar sounds of chattering students and grumbling siblings, those visuals become enhanced, far more powerful.
Picture Day is a heartbreaking film, one in which we see Casey lose pieces of herself throughout. Her struggles come as a result of her family life and, what appears to be a constant change of scenery in terms of schooling. It’s one thing to see an adult struggle, to lose parts of themselves because of the decisions that they have made, but to watch a twelve-year-old’s life crumble around them, with no way of stopping it, is incredibly difficult to swallow. Picture Day uses enticingly simplistic sets and sound design to intrigue viewers, and this slice-of-life film hits all the right emotional notes every step of the way.
Written & Directed by Kelly Pike.
Starring Oona Mei Yaffe, Michelle Krusiec, Michael A. Perl, Cole Zampas-Klean, etc.
9/10 = DROP EVERYTHING AND WATCH IT NOW
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