Last Night (1998)
Directed by: Don McKellar
Premise: The film follows the lives of several couples on the eve of the apocalypse.
What Works: The film has a great and original premise: that the end of the world is here and everyone knows it. This allows the filmmakers to get around the why and the how and instead focus on the individual stories. The film raises some interesting and thoughtful ideas about ethics, love, and commitment but does not get sentimental or esoteric. The different storylines allow the film to address different perspectives, such as hedonistic and religious ideas about how to cope with the apocalypse.
What Doesn’t: For dealing with the end of the world, the film has a very small scope. It contains all the action to a single city and the storylines are of people from similar backgrounds.
DVD extras: None.
Bottom Line: Last Night is a sad but hopeful film about humanity. It is also a very original film that takes its premise seriously but is creative with it and really gives the audience things they have not seen before.
Episode: #79 (January 1, 2006)