In thirty days, the world will end. Everyone on the planet knows this and accepts this. What would you do with your remaining time? How about finishing making that sci-fi movie you and your buds were unable to complete in high school? This is the basic premise of writer/director Nathan Blackwell’s The Last Movie Ever Made, currently making the rounds on the festival circuit. If you think that sounds like quirky fun, you’re right, but it’s also surprisingly heartfelt.
When we first meet middle-aged Marshall (Adam Rini), he seems to have already given up on life. His apartment is a wreck and he’s eating cereal out of a saucepan, the only unsoiled dish in his kitchen. So, when a mysterious voice (Benjamin Partridge) is broadcast directly into the minds of everyone on Earth informing them that they’ve been living in a simulation run by humans from a ruined future and that their reality will be deleted in thirty days, he mostly takes the news in stride.
However, after fifteen days of complete debauchery, he happens upon a DVD collection of all the films he made with his buddies in high school. Now determined to leave a mark in the waning days of the universe, he reaches out to long-lost friends and some strangers for help in completing a no-budget Flash Gordon-esque flick that he began work on over twenty years ago. Notable roles also belong to Craig Curtis as Marshall’s right-hand man, Dallas Teat as an enthusiastic neighbor, Logan Blackwell as an old coworker with a flair for the dramatic, James Hoenscheidt as an old classmate, Christopher Hoenscheidt as a young movie nerd, Jodie L Weiss as Marshall’s holiday obsessed mom, and Megan Rini as Audrey, Marshall’s ex-wife.
The script is competently structured and clearly communicates the conceit and themes. Though an absurdly ironic tone is cultivated for most of the 95-minute runtime, Nathan Blackwell still makes time for welcome character moments with his somewhat large cast. Motivations could’ve been difficult to manufacture, given the bizarre circumstances, but personalities nevertheless shine through. With regards to the story itself, it goes with the flow, unconcerned with the science fiction-y details of what’s happening. Blackwell stays laser-focused on Marshall’s arc in a funny and existential exploration of a search for meaning at the end of all things. The more emotional moments approach sentimentalism and don’t quite fit seamlessly with the rest of the movie’s whimsical fatalism, but they undoubtedly bring some heft to a piece that could’ve been breezy but forgettable.
The performances are all solid as hell. Adam Rini is totally believable as a man who has already lost so much prior to the apocalypse but who is determined to let art be his epitaph, even if the only people who will ever see it are his cast and crew. Craig Curtis, Megan Rini, and Jodie L Weiss are also invaluable with polished turns in sizable parts. I definitely appreciated the Monty Python-esque flair Benjamin Partridge brought to his vocals. Logan Blackwell was probably my favorite, though, and often had me cracking up. I have to say, the comic timing of the cast (assisted by Nathan Blackwell’s confident editing) was dead on. Low-budget films often struggle with this, but there are plenty of legit laughs here.
The lensing by Jacen Sievers maintains a clear focus on storytelling while effortlessly placing us inside this weird apocalypse. I enjoyed the contrast in styles between the movie we’re watching and the footage shot by the characters. It may be a small detail, but it massively contributes to the success of the illusion. The production design is admirable, especially the DIY costumes and sets used within the film within a film. Michael Markowski’s score, as realized by the Budapest Scoring Symphony Orchestra, is a little on the nose for the dramatic scenes but is otherwise enjoyable. To be clear, the music is good and even impressive in that it makes the film feel bigger than it is, it just doesn’t quite mesh with the overall tone in certain spots.
Nathan Blackwell’s The Last Movie Ever Made is as funny and entertaining as I hoped it would be, but it also dips its toes into existentialism. The film closes on a bittersweet moment, but it’s completely earned. That being said, the smile never left my face, and I think that’s what the flick wants. This is an impressive effort that I fully expect to rack up awards at festivals (its next stop is at the Popcorn Frights Festival in Florida). I will certainly be on the lookout for whatever Squishy Studios does next. Highly recommended for fans of Ed Wood, Be Kind Rewind, and American Movie.
Michael Cavender