Zack Snyder’s ‘The Last Photograph’ Faces Harsh Criticism at TIFF as His Worst Film Yet

Avatar photoHrvoje Milakovic
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Zack Snyder has spent recent years navigating between blockbuster franchises and more personal projects, with ‘The Last Photograph’ firmly in the latter category. This film has been in development since the mid-2000s, overcoming numerous setbacks, cast changes, and a lengthy detour through his work with DC and ‘Rebel Moon’ before finally making it to the screen.

Unlike Snyder’s previous blockbusters, this film was self-financed, shot by Snyder himself as the cinematographer, and presented at the Toronto International Film Festival as an acquisition title still in search of a distributor. The story features Stuart Martin and Fra Fee as an ex-DEA agent and a war photographer navigating the South American jungle in a desperate search for the agent’s kidnapped niece and nephew.

However, the film’s premiere met with immediate backlash. Critic Matt Neglia provided a particularly scathing review, stating that while Snyder seems to believe he has created something more profound than his past works, the end result is a tedious, frustrating, and grueling experience, labeling it the worst film he had seen at the festival thus far.

Critics were not alone in their harsh assessments. Attendees described the film using terms like “dogshit,” “abysmal,” and “an embarrassment,” with many comparing it unfavorably to Snyder’s previous works and to classics like ‘Apocalypse Now’ that clearly inspired its tone. Notably, Snyder had joked before the screening that this might be the only time the film is shown to an audience, a comment that resonated differently once the credits rolled.

Concerns primarily focused on pacing and excess. Many reviews pointed out that the film, which runs over two hours, is filled with slow-motion sequences, violence, and heavy-handed dialogue. Critics argued that a tighter edit could have significantly improved the film’s impact.

Despite the overwhelmingly negative feedback, not all reactions were harsh. Deadline’s review described ‘The Last Photograph’ as a violent yet surprisingly human action drama, praising Snyder’s cinematography and finding Stuart Martin’s performance more convincing than some of the harsher social media critiques suggested. The film’s tone was likened more to Peter Weir’s ‘The Year of Living Dangerously’ than to the culture-war action films it was often compared to.

Some attendees offered mixed reviews, appreciating the film’s cinematography and Hans Zimmer’s score while acknowledging its narrative flaws. One reviewer awarded it three stars, calling it a stunning realization of a passion project Snyder had pursued for decades, even as many others left the theater deeming it one of the worst films to ever premiere at the festival.

As of the TIFF premiere, ‘The Last Photograph’ still lacks a distributor, and the film’s reception is unlikely to facilitate that search. Snyder addressed the audience before the screening, praising the festival as home to some of the greatest cinema audiences and describing the project as a genuine labor of love nearly two decades in the making.

Whether this passion translates into a theatrical release remains uncertain, especially with buyers reportedly cautious about the film’s violence and modest production value even before these reactions became public. For a director whose career has been marked by a divide between critical disdain and audience appreciation, this latest wave of reviews seems to continue a pattern that has followed him since his earliest studio films.

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