100 Christian Science Monitor | Peter Rainer Photographic Memory is about the permanence and impermanence of what we choose to preserve: on film and in our heads (which is often the same thing). I would like to think that one day Adrian might look at this documentary and see it as a supreme act of paternal love. Read full review
91 The A.V. Club | Noel Murray Photographic Memory is less wry and more melancholy than McElwee's earlier documentaries; it's a lot like his superb 2003 film "Bright Leaves," which was also concerned with family history and the shifting meaning of images. Read full review
88 Slant Magazine | Joseph Jon Lanthier Ross McElwee is less anxious of death itself than of finally comprehending the vast faultiness of the life he's lived. Read full review