Last Night

ultra magnus

Offscreen is put together by the University of Virginia Film and Media Society. It's a series of international and independent features shown each Tuesday night. Last week, I reviewed the first such screening, Winter Sleepers, by Tom Tykwer. This week, I had the opportunity to see a very cool Canadian film, Last Night.

Last Night is the directorial debut of indie stalwart Don McKellar (The Red Violin, Exotica), who also stars. It's an ensemble piece about the human side to the end of the world. That's right, the world is ending in six hours, but don't expect any Armageddon-like heroics. In fact, McKellar wrote the story as a sort of counterpoint to movies like Armageddon and Deep Impact. The Sun is going supernova (this is not really a science fiction movie, so I'll ignore the fact that this won't ever happen) and mankind is doomed and has known it for a long time. The government shut down months ago, and cell phones haven't worked since. This movie is an exploration of how people act and prepare for the end of the world - how each person tries to find their own peace. Deep Impact had some good human drama between all the astronaut heroics, and this movie is an extension of that idea. Some pretty moving stuff, actually.

Sandra (Sandra Oh) is trying to make it home to her husband so they can ring in the end together; Patrick (McKellar) is going to spend his last hours alone, despite his family's wish to be together; and Craig (Callum Keith Rennie) is fulfilling as many sexual fantasies as possible before the big check-out. Oh is excellent as the frazzled, desperate newlywed. Her wonderfully expressive face speaks volumes about her situation. McKellar's performance is typically droll, a bemused and detached character alone in the world. And Rennie is very funny in his role as a meticulously hard-working sex machine.

McKellar shows us the expected looting and rioting, but perhaps the most chilling moments are the darkly comic episodes of eerie normality. A gas company executive (noted director David Cronenberg) calls his customers one by one, thanking them for their business and promising every effort to keep the gas flowing until the very end. A radio DJ plays the top 500 songs of all time while a local television station offers inane coverage of the last news that will ever be.

I've always wondered how people would act if there were truly no hope for survival. Take the classic When Worlds Collide. It always haunted me what it was like for all the people who didn't make it onto the spaceship. Last Night gives a glimpse of what it might be like, and while it's certainly depressing, it's almost uplifting. You just have to see it. I wholeheartedly recommend this movie for everyone, not just arthouse fans.