Last Night

Last Night is a small movie from Canada about a large topic - the end of the world. I saw this on Netflix streaming the other night, and was taken in by the performances of the actors. There are some big names associated with such a small film, for example Genevieve Bujold and David Cronenberg. Sandra Oh, who is famous for her role on "Grey's Anatomy" and Sarah Polley, who was terrific in "Dawn of the Dead" are also featured.

The best performance though is from Callum Keith Rennie, who plays a guy who's decided to spend his remaining days alive having sex with almost anyone. He's made a long list of fetishes and fantasies that he hopes to live out before the end.

The main character is played by the director, Don McKellar. He plays a dry, understated man who's suffered a personal tragedy and is looking to spend his last night wallowing in self-pity and loss. Through the vicissitudes of fate, his plans are dramatically altered, when he meets up with another traumatized person named Sandra (played by Sandra Oh). 

The plot concerns these people and a few others during the course of the very last night Earth has. This is never explained, but it doesn't matter - the world is ending and somehow we know when the end will be. Knowing how or why this is happening doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that at midnight, it's all over.


There are many different reactions to this event, and the movie does a decent job touching on the theme. It does suffer from having a small budget, as it seems that most of the people in the world are young urban hipsters, but it doesn't kill the vibe of the movie. This is a movie about the relationships of a few people in a traumatic setting and it succeeds in this.


There are a lot of humorous moments throughout, however understated and dry they may be, much like the main character. This is a movie about small things though, and as such it's where it gets its power. It focuses on a small group of people, whose lives are intertwined by the events in the movie. By focusing on these small things, like the pain of mourning, or the anxiety of a wife trying to reach her husband, it takes this massive event - the end of the world - and brings it down to a human scale, to a scale we can relate to.


This isn't a movie about typical science-fiction trappings. There are no explosions or special effects. It's a well written story about the effect that an event like that would have on the lives of ordinary people in an extraordinary situation.


There are great moments in this movie. The scenes between best friends Patrick (McKellar) and Craig (Rennie) feel very real. I loved the way they bust each others balls even as they know that this is the end. It felt like something I could see happening between two friends.

Sandra Oh was very impressive in this. I've never watched her on tv, so this was the first time seeing her other than on promos for her show. Cronenberg is interesting, but he's not a good actor, and the character he plays is so deliberately deadpan that it becomes boring. His was the only one that felt out of place for me. 


Bujold has a small role too, but her approach to it is much more interesting and there's a poignancy that comes across which I thought was excellent. I would have liked more of her.


I recommend this if you're interested in something a bit different. It's slow, quiet, thoughtful, and provocative, so give it chance if you can enjoy a movie that is less about sensational and more about people's interactions with each other.

Cronos

Cronos is a movie by Guillermo del Toro, from 1993. It's the story of an odd device that brings the promise of eternal life to the person who 'hosts' it, sort of like a parasite. There are dire consequences of course to the use of this device.

As a concept, the movie had promise. I liked the beginning where we are introduced to this Cronos device in the 16th century. There's some interesting narration that provides a sense of mystery in these opening scenes, but unfortunately once we get to the present time, there's no longer any attempt to develop the story of this fascinating machine. The movie just becomes a standard mix of action amidst a slightly vampiric setting.

I know that this film has its fans, but I'm not one. I felt this was a great example of style over substance. Guillermo del Toro shows us an abundance of talent in this effort, which was all in the visual aspects. The film fell short in the narrative, and while I can look past a poorly written story that's directed brilliantly, this wasn't brilliant enough to offset the weakly conceived story.

When you get right down to it, this is a vampire movie. The setting is different than what most of us are used to, but setting only goes so far. Every relationship in this movie is poorly developed; Jesus Gris, the main character and his wife, Jesus and his granddaughter Aurora, and the brute Angel and his uncle. None of these relationships has any background or significance. We have no idea why the savage Angel bears his uncle's unpleasantness. We have no idea why Aurora has the bond with her grandfather that she does, nor why there's no apparent reason for her grandmother to even exist in this film.

This is a movie that presents too many unanswered questions to be satisfying. Sure, it's well filmed and clever at times, but that's not enough to overcome the deficiencies in the storytelling. You could be generous and say that for a first feature film, del Toro produced something quite interesting, but it didn't hold my interest. It was fair, and certainly shows the promise of the director as he grew more capable. Still, this isn't a great film.