Last Night (1998)

Written, directed and staring "Toronto New Wave" (yes that's a thing) filmmaker Don McKeller, Last Night follows around a dozen or so characters during the last six hours of life on this planet. While the impending cause of the planets doom is never made explicate, we know that it is some kind of stellar phenomena because while the movie covers 6pm to midnight (Toronto time) it never gets dark and one character mentions that he misses "night time". So it's a comet or star or something that has given sufficient notice that everyone knows that the end is defiantly coming, and that there is no way to stop it. While there is some looting and violence for the most part the characters in this film handle impending oblivion in a suitably polite, restrained, Canadian manner, though all must grapple with existential dread in their own ways.

On character Duncan (played by horror director David Cronenberg) an employee of the municipal gas company spends most of his day calling customers and leaving them voicemails, thanking them for using the gas company. The handsome Craig Zwiller (Callum Keith Rennie) has been spending the months leading up to Armageddon working his way through a bucket list of sexual conquests, including his high school French teacher  Mme Carlton (Geneviève Bujold). A Mrs. Wheeler (Robert Maxwell) is intent on holding one last Christmas for her grown children, even though it isn't the holiday season. Patrick Wheeler (McKellar) just wants to die alone, but is interrupted by Sandra (Sandra Oh) a woman whose car was wrecked by vandals and is just trying to get back to her husband before the end.

This movie tackles much of the same territory as the later film Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, so much so that the latter movie could be considered a loose remake. The original film however is defiantly more of an ensemble piece, though Patrick and Sandra's story form the hub from which the other narratives grow. This movie is even more somber then Seeking a Friend, it's melancholy is of greater subtlety. It is also rougher and less polished, feels truer, and is I think is the better movie, even a great picture, though I still rather liked the Steve Carell film. Before seeing this film I heard someone say "well everybody likes Last Night" and took it is a bit of challenge, an "I won't be so easy to win over" but I was, this movie really works, at first its not entirely clear what its trying to be, that gets clearer with time and there is a joy in making connections between these characters and piecing together backstory. It's really an achievement, a beautiful film. ****