Last Night

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wayne k Around the turn of the 21st century, I remember people freaking out over the so-called ‘millennium bug'. Last Night takes that contemporary fear and examines it on a human level. The film is based on an intriguing questions: If you knew, definitively, that the world was going to end that very day, how would you spend your final few hours? Would you get together with family members, throw a massive party, tick some items off your bucket list or simply stay home alone and do nothing? These are all among the choices made by the characters within the film, as the clock approaches midnight and the end of the world beckons. I was worried it was going to be a pretentious art house flick, where nobody is an individual, and are instead simply vessels for spewing gratingly smug dialogue and obnoxious platitudes. But no, the characters involved feel like real people. They talk and act differently, interact with each in different ways and come to learn their own lessons as the story goes on. When they talk to each other, particularly Sandra and Patrick, it feels like 2 human beings having an honest and frank discussion. It seems like writer/director/actor Don McKeller wanted the characters to have an odd flippancy about their inevitable doom, as many players act like the coming apocalypse will be some minor inconvenience in an otherwise routine day. But I think the point he was trying to make is that we get so wrapped up in our own lives and troubles that we rarely get a chance to fully see what's going on around us. It does feel slack and ambling at times, but then again so do its characters. The film ends at just the right time, and when it's over there's a sense that you've really gotten to know the people who've just been wiped from the face of the earth. I've never heard anyone speak about it, and I can see it not being to everyone's tastes, but it's a film that, thanks to focussing on the end of the world rather than just the end of the millennium, has granted itself a kind of immortality. The 90s were chockfull of great flicks, and I can safely say that Last Night is one of them. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review dave s The fact that global annihilation is just moments away could be the reason why it is sunny at midnight in Toronto but, in the long run, that's neither here nor there. Don McKellar's Last Night is a surprisingly intimate and wryly humorous end of times movie. With only hours left before the unspecified disaster ends life on Earth, Patrick (McKellar) is intent on spending his final moments alone. However, things change when he meets Sandra (Sandra Oh), desperate to find her husband in order to fulfil a suicide pact. The movie manages to evoke the required sense of desperation as the various characters try to find some sense of solace in their final moments, ranging from a reliance on faith to the fulfilment of a sexual bucket list. While not without its warts (the lighting always seems off, among other things), Last Night is surprisingly refreshing when considering the subject matter. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Lucy M One of my favorite movies. Excels on every level. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/29/22 Full Review Audience Member An unusual end of the world drama that's ponderously paced and doesn't suit the 4:3 aspect it's filmed in, but is oddly affecting by the end. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Best movie ever! Absolute must see! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Audience Member While Hollywood was churning out films about aliens and natural disasters threatening life on earth which always ended with an American hero saving the world, this more thoughtful Canadian film was considering "What would you do with yourself if you knew the world was ending and there was no way to stop it?" It follows the final hours of different people and how they choose to spend it, in all the diverse ways people might behave in the face of the end. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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