Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) Miranda July

Victoria Sawchyn and Kathryn Lake being “best friends” for the entirety of Trigger (2010)

“This is love: I secretly believe that I'm unlovable, and then I meet you. You tell me that you love me. I love you because you love me, but that has nothing to do with you; it's about you loving me. I only love you because I imagine myself unlovable, and you, against all odds, love me. And then, and some point, you do something that makes me think that you don't love me, which I'm more ready to believe than you loving me because I'm unlovable, so I stop loving you; I only love you because you love me, and I'm unlovable.”

One of the unsung heroes of late 20th century/early 21st century indie cinema is Don McKellar. I was first introduced to his writing and support roles through his work with Francois Girard on the films “The Red Violin” and “Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould” and his scene stealing performance as Darren Nichols in the Canadian TV series “Slings and Arrows”. “Last Night” represents McKellar going out on his own for the first time and producing an bold and inspiring original piece of film.

The title “Last Night” refers to the end of the Earth and civilization. In the heart of Toronto, several figures are coping with the inevitable Armageddon. Patrick (McKellar) is a loner who reluctantly gets in touch with his family, including his sister Jennifer (Sarah Polley) and their parents (Roberta Maxwell and Robin Gammell). Sandra (Sandra Oh) is on her way home when her car is destroyed and she ends up stranded. Sandra’s husband Duncan (David Cronenberg) works for the power company and calls every one his customers assuring them that the heat will be turned on all night. His secretary Donna (Tracy Wright aka the late Mrs. McKellar) wants to sow her wild oats. Patrick’s friend Craig (Callum Keith Rennie) is spending his last hours trying to have various types of sex with different women, in particular he and Patrick’s old French teacher Mme. Carlton (Genevieve Bujold). In the Earth’s last 6 hours of existence, these people’s lives will intersect, affecting whatever time they have left.

I have mentioned in previous posts that I am not a big fan of Canadian cinema as a whole. However, “Last Night” falls under my personal and exclusive class of Canadian films that are well written, acted and directed. McKellar’s very original story fills things with tension and unpredictability. The scenes of rioting and mayhem in the streets are purely heartbreaking and makes “The Purge” films look like child’s play. Coming out the same year as the horrid disaster flick “Armageddon”, McKellar’s own story about Armageddon doesn’t go off into the depths of maudlin soap opera hysterics and cheap special effects. Each character has their different traits with an aura of humanity. You want to know more about these characters in a matter of the 6 hour window of time and the feel of humanity’s death sentence cuts like a knife to the heart.

As Patrick, Don McKellar is terrific. He doesn’t overact, but rather makes good use of underacting to convincingly show his character’s hermit status. Callum Keith Rennie, in his Genie Award winning performance as Craig provides the comedy relief to counteract Patrick’s dramatics. The scene where he writes on the walls his various sexual dreams, he manages to keep a straight face, which is the mark of a good acting job. He is almost a precursor to Richard Coyle’s perverted character Jeff on the British TV series “Coupling”. David Cronenberg joins the group of directors that make good actors like John Huston with his soft spoken and timid Duncan. Not diminishing these performances at all, Sandra Oh’s namesake character puts these three to shame at key moments. She is probably the most true to life person in the whole film. Taking a simple plot line of a helpless woman, Oh manages to turn her role into a fascinating character study. If there was a performance that deserved the Genie Award, it’s her work on this film.

In addition to Oh and Rennie’s Genie Award wins, Don McKellar won the Claude Jutra Award for Best First Feature, an irony considering that Jutra was a sub-par director, but that’s another discussion. The film received an additional 10 nominations including 3 for McKellar in the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay categories, as well as two Supporting Actress nominations for Roberta Maxwell and Genevieve Bujold. It lost the majority of the awards to another film that McKellar was involved with, “The Red Violin”. McKellar won the Award of the Youth at the Cannes Film Festival and various awards around Canada. “Last Night” remains an unexpected, yet well deserved nugget in Canadian film history and also a film that should be made more aware to international audiences.