Last Words

I honestly don't know what "Last Words" was about. There's no story, and nothing much happens. I watched it at three times the speed and was still thoroughly bored by the slow pacing.

It was too damn long! Ok, we ge t the weird. But dude get it shorter! It was lovely but cut it bro. Ok change the bait man. My ggodnness now i know hy it was soi bad. Blah bah who dee whjoo. Really stop. There isa no reaso. Why this is the why.

It's 2086 in a post-apocalyptic world. Kal believes that he is the last man on Earth. Two years earlier, he is roaming the world with his pregnant sister. She gets killed and then he encounters reclusive film collector Shakespeare (Nick Nolte). They find a surprising farming community led by Batlk (Charlotte Rampling) and former surgeon Zyberski (Stellan Skarsgård).

This is an artsy post-apocalyptic movie. It's long. The first half is slow. There are some interesting bits but mostly, it's not that compelling. It's not the first time in the movies that cinema is seen as the salvation of civilization. In a small aside, Nick Nolte's I Remember speech wouldn't make sense unless his character is over 100 years old. It's careless writing and indicative of the general level of writing.

The more appropriate term is perhaps "speculative fiction", not sci-fi, with all its machines and dystopias. The poignant movie Last Words is ravishing and expansive, powerful yet delicate, explorative and rife with parables, and seen largely through the eyes of a youth who could easily be one of today's climate/economic migrants, cruelly wrenched from everything loved and familiar, and now wandering through a foreign world with eyes wide open (unlike the stultified natives around them). The lad's spoken idiom is Pulaar, which is widely spoken in Senegal and the Gambia (languages credited by IMDb include only English and Italian, but there's also German). The US-born director Nossiter speaks impeccable Italian, so he "gets" the flow and sound of foreign tongues. My fellow reviewer malenor (so far only two of us, Jan 2022) was perhaps expecting Deep Impact or something similar. If s/he had smoked a joint and laid back to absorb this heartfelt yet anguished allegory, s/he'd have had an entirely different experience and might have found personal enrichment. This poetic epic is not for the popcorn audience.

I am dying of pancreatic cancer right now so for me, this film had a special poignancy. If you care about humanity and appreciate living every moment in the present, you are likely to enjoy this film. It's also about the joy and power of film to document people's existence on this planet.

Kudos to the director for including so many delightful film clips, especially the clip from a rarely seen interview with Dennis Potter. Most of the clips are well-known such as Monty Python, Buster Keaton, etc.