No Pictures With My Father

Directed by Reginald M. Jernigan Jr., No Pictures With My Father follows Jernigan Jr. as he sets out to reconnect with his estranged father and discover why he doesn’t possess a single picture with the man – with the movie also boasting chats with other individuals lacking in strong relationships with their dads. It’s potentially gripping subject matter that is, by and large, employed to woefully lackluster effect by Jernigan Jr., as the filmmaker offers up a pervasively earnest piece of work that contains few (if any) cinematic qualities or even attributes designed to capture the viewer’s interest and attention – with the arms-length atmosphere compounded by Jernigan Jr.’s decidedly low-rent approach to the material. (The movie is, after all, essentially just a series of shot-on-the-cheap interviews with little in the way of production values or even decent sound.) And while Jernigan Jr. does, at least, pepper the proceedings with a few heartfelt moments, including (and especially) a tearful conversation with a grocery-store employee about his bond (or lack thereof) with his pop, No Pictures For My Father ultimately (and predominantly) comes off as a missed opportunity that feels more like a school project than an actual movie.

* out of ****