Title: 4:44 Last Day On Earth
Director: Abel Ferrara
Cast: Willem Dafoe and Shanyn Leigh
The end of the world seems to be a theme from movies of 2011. Movies like “Melancholia” and “Take Shelter” seem to explore notions of how people act and react to the end of everything. Maybe it has to do with the superstition of the 2012 predictions of the end of the world, but regardless, this notion has seem to captivate filmmakers. In the new film from director, Abel Ferrara, “4:44 Last Day On Earth” seems to follow suit, but in this regard, this is a more horrible failure than the actual end of the world.
The title of this film suggest the exact time the end of the world will happen, 4:44AM EST. It revolves around a couple Cisco and Skye, (Willem Dafoe and Shanyn Leigh) living in an amazing apartment in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. I use that word “amazing” because it is really the only element in this film that is worth praise. As the end of the world looms upon the people living in it, this couple comes to terms with their lives and relationships. Everything, except the apartment, in this film is completely laughable. The acting is over the top and meaningless, the themes are cliche and eye-roll worthy and the filmmaking is a joke.
I’m not sure what Ferrara was going for in this movie but it seems like he takes pleasure in boring audiences and at the same time delivering a film that will make them laugh in its sincere moments. Why is the world coming to an end? Well, it’s due to corporate greed and the people’s apathy to realize it. How do we show this? Through Apple computers, large flat screen TVs and dream sequences of Dafoe chopping down a tree while screaming and crying. C’mon. What are we doing here? Is a this film for a film school exercise?
When Ferrara isn’t delivering laughable dialogue matched by obtuse imagery and on-the-nose symbolism, he gives us gratuitous sex scenes of this couple. And when they’re not having sex, they’re fighting. I wonder what Ferrara is saying here. As they fight, Dafoe’s Cisco wanders through the streets of New York coming to an existential conclusion. Who cares?! What’s interesting about this movie? Why are we watching this?
The filmmaking comes off as amateurish and lazy, depending too much on Dafoe and Skype. Skype! I’ve never seen a movie that completely relies on Skype and does so in an uninteresting and dull way. There are so many scenes that take place over Skype it comes off as inept and clumsy. Why not iChat? Why not ICQ or Google Voice? Ugh! Who cares!?
As a singular vision, Abel Ferrara is an auteur, which is an argument against the auteur theory. This film is mindless, pointless, fruitless, nonsense, a hopeless waste, laughable, lazy, moronic and sophomoric. It’s amazing to me how the end of the world is an uninteresting exercise. It’s also amazing that the complimentary thing for me to say about this movie is the apartment where its set. There’s a line in this movie that perfectly sums up and describes it, Willem Dafoe’s Cisco is going on an emotional tirade, when he picks up this book where he keeps his research of the end of the world, grabs it, literally wrestles with it and throws it off his roof. He points at it from above, screaming “Fuck this book! Fuck this book!”. I would like to mirror that scene but instead of that book, have his movie in my hands, screaming “Fuck this movie! Fuck this movie!” That’s as clever as I’m going to spend on reviewing this movie. Goodbye!
“4:44 Last Day On Earth” is screening during the New York Film Festival on Oct 5th and Oct 8th.
Technical: D-
Acting: F
Story: F
Overall: F
by @Rudie_Obias
