Masterpiece Cinema - Last Night

Last Night Starring Don McKellar, Sandra Oh, Sarah Polley, Trent McMullen.

Written by Don McKellar

Directed by Don McKellar

Genre: Drama (There are so many ‘End of the World’ movies now that, like football movies and high school movies, they deserve their own section at Blockbuster)

Released: 1998

Running time: 95 minutes.

Rated: R (American rating for sexuality, language and brief violence).

IMDb link: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0156729/

Now here’s a modern classic that very few people have seen, or even heard of (at least in the circles in which I run). Written and directed by Canadian auteur Don McKellar, Last Night is all about the end of the world.



Unlike most films that tackle this subject, Last Night deals with the subject manner in a very realistic, subdued way. There’s no Bruce Willis action figure tie-in, there’s no alien bug monsters, there’s no Stephen King-esque super flu. In fact, we’re never even definitively told what kind of doom is impending

(though the light in the sky implies fairly heavily that either a meteor’s about to hit or the sun’s going to explode. Both Very Bad Things to be happening).

Writer/director McKellar stars as Patrick Wheeler, a guy who’s hoping he can get through the tears and tediousness of his family’s final ever get-together before he can go off and die the way he wants to – with a nice bottle of wine and the stereo playing a favourite song.

At the same time, Sandra (played by Sandra Oh, now of Sideways fame), is trying to get across town so that she and her husband can also die the way they want to – by committing mutual suicide.

Patrick’s best friend, Alex, has hauled himself up in his apartment during the final hours of the human race, making his way through his ‘To Do’ list – the things he always wanted to do sexually but never had the chance, or guts, to do. This includes having sex with a black woman, his high school French teacher, and a virgin, amongst many others.

These are only three of the many stories that are told throughout this tense piece of cinema, and it’s not long before all the characters’ lives are interweaving, each of them near desperation point as the end of the world grows ever closer.

Sounds kind of depressing, doesn’t it? And it is. But it’s still an incredibly great movie to watch. It really grabs you and doesn’t let you go, leaving you breathless and heartbroken at the end. It’s a story told with sensitivity and ability, and stars some great Canadian talent (including Sarah Polley from Go and the recent Dawn of the Dead remake, as well as infamous director David Cronenberg, who worked with McKellar again later on in eXistenZ).

And hey, McKellar’s appeared on Degrassi: The Next Generation, as the butthole fiancé of old school character Caitlin Ryan. Anyone that cool is well deserving of your video rental dollars. If they ever release it down here in Australia on DVD, you can bet I’ll be adding it to my collection. I highly recommend you do the same.

Next Week: As promised; love in the time of movie monster prosthetics…

Politics Factzone: The truth about Kim Jong Il Kim Jong Il, the leader of the free world, has decided to move on to more fertile grounds, leaving with us just the memories of 8-color rainbows, singing Korean women and couple of nuclear weapons. But who was this man whose next ambition would have been to get the next Nobel Peace prize? Here are just a few facts you should know about. more Top 5 Conspiracy Theories Related to John F. Kennedy's Assassination 26.Aug 2011 Since just after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, conspiracy theories abou...read ISRAEL KEEPING GHADDAFI AFLOAT 10.Mar 2011 ...read Glen Beck Is NOT the Anti-Christ! 10.Mar 2011 Hurtful and fiery rhetoric is now media’s default setting! This slippery and m...read Recipe for A REVOLUTION! (10 easy steps - try not to get burned!) 28.Feb 2011 Rebellion is cooking in the air. People are mad as hell, and not going to take...read THE ASSANGE CASE. CIA INTERFERED WITH SWEDISH LEGAL PROCESSES EXTREME RIGHT POLITICS A DANGER TO EUROPEAN UNITY THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY. OUT OF TOUCH, OUT OF FOCUS, OUT OF CREDIBILITY AND HOPEFULLY, OUT OF THE DOOR Opinion World governments charged with criminal negligence (in response to Megaupload case) EARTH (thecheers.org) - Federal authorities of the universe have charged the governments of all the countries in the world as well as the operators actually in power in these countries with operating a criminal enterprise, the Galaxy warriors announced Today. more The Great OSCARS 2011 – or so it would seem 5.Mar 2011 So, how exciting......a morning off, the Academy Awards. I wish I could say the...read Top 7 Expensive Bordellos. Prostitution: Shakedown, Tier Down, and Priced Out 31.Jan 2011 According to a report of the Washington DC-based US Department of State, The Ph...read The Great Secret and Reason for the JFK Assassination 11.Oct 2010 The great question is why the great secret? On June 4 1963, President Kennedy s...read Don't Do it! The 3 Worst Times to Get Tattoos 4.Oct 2010 As a general rule, tattoos gotten after 2 am are a bad idea. But in a bigger pi...read

Travel Travel Warning 13 September 2010 - DO NOT TRAVEL TO IRAN 13.Sep 2010 TRAVELWISE has been watching the situation in Iran for some months in relation ...read more TRAVELWISE TRAVEL ADVISORY 5th June 2010. DO NOT TRAVEL TO ISRAEL. 5.Jun 2010 Given the recent incident whereby the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, used...read TRAVELWISE. 16 APRIL 2010. EUROPEAN TRAVEL ALTERNATIVES 16.Apr 2010 Travelwise issues the following advice in relation to cancelled flights to, fro...read TRAVELWISE 6 APRIL 2010. AUSTRALIAN AIR TRAVEL. THE BEST WAYS TO TRAVEL BY AIR IN AUSTRALIA. 5.Apr 2010 Regular readers might have seen and read the various advisory and no-fly notice...read TRAVELWISE 2 APRIL 2010. QANTAS. 2.Apr 2010 Some concerns have been raised in relation to some of the maintenance practices...read Sport No Payoff From the Playoffs $16.50 will Get Anyone in the Hall Mr McGwire Stupid Athlete Tricks Technology Think Big! Think the World's Largest International Trade Show Top 9 cool laptop accessories for laptop geeks Twittering: I'm not that interesting Cheers Jesus' Answering Machine Brown Couch or twelve midgets in the town square How To Be Happy Drugged Out Saturday Nights Muslim Decapitation: Bad, or Simply Misunderstood?