Rating: 
Summary: It's the details
Review: Underneath an important scene, you can hear a tv announcer tell the world that Quebec is independent. 20,000 people are being taught to play "Taking Care of Business" for their last wish. It's the little sketches like that that make this movie work.
Rating: 
Summary: McKellar's Debut Is A Gem
Review: What would you do if you knew the world was going to end tomorrow? Don McKellar answers this question in his full feature debut, as a director, and dazzles us with his wry humor and big heart. McKellar, Canada's best kept cinematic secret, and a triple threat player as he writes, directs and plays leading man with equally strong effect. I would recommend Hollywood to take notice of McKellar and give the guy a budget and let him run with it. Previously best known for his role in as the pet shop owner in the indie film "Exotica", McKellar's end of the world opus is made on a shoesting budget with an ensemble cast of excellent B-list actors.McKellar does not waste time with lengthly explanations of why the world is ending at midnight. The only information we get is that it has something to do with the sun, goverment has been shut down for two months and everyone is pretty much attempting to cope with this grim inevitability in their own way. David Cronenberg (the director) plays a gas company manager who dutifully and hilariously calls through a phone list of customers thanking them for their support over the years and wishing them a happy ending. A doting mother calls together her family for a final "Christmas" dinner and appears to be cooking everything in the freezer. The magnificent Genvieve Bujold plays an aging French teacher who visits many of her former students. Others want to go out with a big bang. Indie veteran actor, Keith Rennie Callum, is on the internet attempting to seduce women into performing every conceivable sex act that he hasn't tried. Many of the younger crowd go "wilding"; getting drunk, intimidating passerbys and counting down the end of the world in a New Years Eve Times Square type of gathering. Don McKeller's leading man and Sandra Oh's leading lady play the star-crossed pair who by serendipty are in the same place at the same time. McKellar's visually stunning camera angles in the wordless final scene between Sandra Oh and himself make the final frames of "Last Night" among the most powerful in recent memory. McKellar's filmaking and writting technique have Robert Altman as a precendent. He strings together loose vignettes of seemingly isolated events and unconnected characters and shows us the interconnectivety of all things. McKellar's storyboarding is stronger than director Paul Thomas Anderson ("Magnolia"), the best known of the younger generation of Altman devotees. I call this film a "keeper", which is my code for a movie you want to buy for repeated viewings with friends and family
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Film, Poor Video
Review: While I agree wholeheartedly with the praise being heaped on the film, I was very disapponted in the video itself. The aspect ratio is 4:3, in other words it has been panned and scanned. Many people like this of course, and I applaud those companies that issue both widescreen and pan and scan formats on the same disc (or even on separate discs). There is plenty of room on this disc to present both formats, as the only extra that is included is a theatrical trailer (which is in the widescreen format). I hope that a better issue of this excellent film will appear. Five stars for the film, one for the video. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Film's brillaint, DVD sucks.
Review: Why, oh why, would they release such a fantastic movie, a (studio-produced) art film in full-screen only? When I saw this in a theater, I was struck by the cinematography, but this DVD really ruins much of it. The expressive desolation of empty buildings and empty streets disappear with pan-and-scan. In other words, get a second-run theater to bring the film back one week, but don't buy the DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing short of a masterpiece.
Review: Wonderfully oddball in its comedy, shockingly profound in its drama, Don McKellar's directorial debut is nothing short of a masterpiece. One of the reason it works is due to its amazingly simple, original premise. If you knew the world was going to end, how would you spend your final hours? Mercifully short of apocalyptic doom, it's a moving, albeit understated study of both the main characters, and the human race. Hauntingly paced, beautifully acted, and flawlessly executed, "Last Night" is that rare thing, a film that stays with you long after the final credit has rolled. Miss at your peril.
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