A film called "Melancholia" (2011 I think) dealt with a group of people facing the destruction of the planet by a collision with a comet. More somber than "Last Night" and quite scary - they could see the comet getting larger as it approached Earth.
shareI sort of expected to like MELANCHOLIA, but ended up being mostly extremely annoyed by it. One thing was how they kept going back to that short phrase of music by Wagner, over and over; that music is evocative and eerie, but very quickly, it just felt like the director was exploiting the rich, painful emotion of Wagner's work; it felt like a cheat. For me, the movie felt very self-indulgent by the director, almost masturbatory. Too bad, because there were little moments or elements now and then, that had potential, or had some eerie feeling to them, but they didn't develop into a good whole. It's been awhile since I saw this, but I recall not being able to really care about any of the characters at all. It could have been so good, but failed by a lot instead.
On the other hand, I remember being very affected by LAST NIGHT, and I really want to see it again.
Multiplex: 100+ shows a day, NONE worth watching. John Sayles' latest: NO distribution. SAD.
I really hated MELANCHOLIA - thought the characters were ALL terribly annoying, and I couldn't wait until they died... and yes, the director over-used the Wagner-piece to force the audience to feel something (anything really) for those dreadful characters on the screen... 2/10
LAST NIGHT on the other hand, was a kinda cute, character-driven film, that didn't feel pretentious, and didn't made the audience feel "forced" to feel anything - it just happened naturally. 7/10
THESE FINAL HOURS is also a terrific film, very reminiscent of this one. 8/10.
Thanks for your thoughts on this. I'll look around for THESE FINAL HOURS.
Just make a movie that makes me care, one way or another. I'm open.