Team Picture is a 2007 mumblecoredrama film written and directed by filmmakerKentucker Audley. The film is a character study of a young man and his relationship with an ambitious girlfriend, his dealings with the familial and societal pressures to go to college, and his considerations of a future as a musician. The filmmaker was named in August 2007 to Filmmaker Magazine's annual list of "25 New Faces of Independent Film".
Synopsis
Erik quits his job at his step dad's sporting goods store, mutually breaks up with his girlfriend Jessica and meets a new girl Sarah. At a crossroads he decides to travel with Sarah to Chicago. His roommate stays in Memphis to lounge at a baby pool in the front yard and perform at coffee shops.
Michael Atkinson of Independent Film Channel gave a mixed review of the film, summarizing, "Charming as it is, maybe like Jayasundara's film, Team Picture isn't realism but rather a heightened Beckettian void". John Beifuss of Memphis Commercial Appeal praised the film, writing that it was "the richest and most assured local feature in the festival", that it "may represent the most promising feature debut for a Memphis filmmaker", and that the "movie's characters and situations are so recognizable and distressingly funny that they are likely to unnerve viewers who aren't bored by the film's lack of overt drama or puzzled by its home-video esthetic". Conversely, Jennifer Aldoretta of Technique panned the film as "mediocre and borderline terrible", noting only that writer and director Audley was "the only one involved who seems like he actually knew what he was doing." Monika Bartyzel of Cinematical wrote that the film, while "not for moviegoers looking for a fast-paced, tightly written story, Team Picture does have some charm as a sort of dead-pan voyeuristic look into modern slackers." Noel Megahey of DVD Times notes an autobiographical character to the film, noting that the film's lead character is played by the writer-director himself, and compliments by writing "its simple philosophy of taking time to find enjoyment is a sound one and it’s an honest sentiment that arises naturally out of the characters". Nick Dawson of Filmmaker Magazine commented that the film felt intimately real, writing "Nenninger's dialogue is scarily familiar, eschewing overly crafted Hollywood patter for the often comical idiosyncrasies of everyday speech."
Additional sources
Boston Phoenix, "Notes from underground: Celebrating independents at the HFA"
