The Last Race

This documentary on Riverhead Raceway, on Long Island, N.Y., brought back memories to me of going to Freeport Raceway on Long Island (one of 40 active stock car tracks at the time) as a kid with my family for a night of racing and excitement.

Alas, Riverhead is the only remaining track of its kind in the area and seemingly barely hanging on, with its aging but dedicated owners Barbara and Jim Cromarty, and land developers on all sides of the track impatiently waiting for them to sell so they can develop another strip mall or parking lot on the valuable land.

This is not your typical doc, with its emphasis on the atmospherics of the stock car venue and the often quirky drivers and characters who keep it running. The film often seems disjointed, as it skips from one scene to another seemingly randomly. Thus, it will most likely turn off some viewers who expect a more traditional and orderly movie.

Overall, I found this doc to illustrate a slice of Americana that's still active but that more often than not will fade from our history.

Look for raw language throughout with the film being only about 1 hr. and 15 mins. in length.

I have been watching racing for 50 years. This is by far the worst documentary I have ever seen. No information shared, the photography is useless. You could have told the story in three minutes. I have no idea who the people were, there back stories, the why, or anything. Terrible story telling and I am a huge fan of grass roots racing and cheesy shows and documentaries, but this is the worst I have ever seen. So sad. They asked about a Spoiler alert? There are none, nothing to spoil. The story is so bad, one scene is a stationary camera shot of the office and Jim it trying to open a package with his teeth. No dialogue, no explanation. NOTHING.

Another scene is from a race car, it passes every car and then the wall is shown for several laps. Then smoke, did it break, who is it, did he win? Again, nothing. So bad.

This movie is the epitome, of what I feel, of car culture basics. This movie properly and well presented of the community's focus and services that the car culture provides. The movie shows how the community socializes and how the community contributes to each other's lives. What I feels is what needs to be absorbed and well grasped from this movie is the whole unity of the car cultures social foundation.

The car culture, was generally showcased as a culture of isofocused, for a lack of a better way to describe the context, but the car culture community, is not revolved around that reality. The reality of these people, from what I've obtained from the movie, is the whole association of the abilities to understand the car's capabilities, and mostly the car's historical significance and the importance of the car's performance. By having this "understanding" of the car's capabilities, will definitely provide you the insights of what it really means to have a "bet" on car racing. When you delve into the car culture, you'll definitely and quickly find the appreciation of what car racing is and does for the person. The Last race was a well created movie of what the car racing community does and focuses on.

I'm a huge grassroots, Saturday night racing fan. I was very excited to see this after seeing the trailer. However it is painfully slow, poorly edited and an hour plus of my time that I won't get back. It gets a three with me because some of the interviews are very good. However most of this is just long silent shots with absolutely no context. Just adding a narrator to this would have dramatically increased the reviews. Such a disappointment.

Interesting documentary about racing car culture and how it all works. I was excited to see this and had high expectations. There are some long shots without audio. Some parts are bland but in general a good watch.