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34
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36
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xx
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31
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41
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57
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67
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54
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49
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34
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57
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xx
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71
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65
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24
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37
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xx
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58
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48
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55
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22
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69
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44
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53
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76
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37
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37
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61
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47
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55
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33
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93
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64
Wanted
36
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54
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93
WALL-E
79
Iron Man
76
Shine a Light
73
Kung Fu Panda
71
Horton Hears a Who!
69
Redbelt
67
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
64
Wanted
62
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The
61
Stop Loss
61
Incredible Hulk, The
58
Mist, The
57
Forbidden Kingdom, The
57
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
55
Street Kings
55
Nim's Island
55
Baby Mama
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
49
Hancock
48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
47
Strangers, The
44
Ruins, The
41
Drillbit Taylor
37
Made of Honor
37
Shutter
37
Speed Racer
36
College Road Trip
36
What Happens in Vegas...
35
Jumper
34
Happening, The
34
10,000 B.C.
33
Superhero Movie
31
Deception
24
Love Guru, The
22
Postal
xx
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
xx
Dark Knight, The
xx
Mamma Mia!
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

83
Alexandra
80
Band's Visit, The
76
Beauty in Trouble
47
Bella
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
59
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55
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60
Brick Lane
70
Caramel
49
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83
Chop Shop
83
Chris & Don. A Love Story
78
Counterfeiters, The
52
Diminished Capacity
64
Dreams with Sharp Teeth
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
84
Edge of Heaven, The
52
Elsa & Fred
79
Encounters at the End of the World
62
Expired
64
Fall, The
51
Finding Amanda
57
Flawless
86
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63
Foot Fist Way, The
60
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45
Full Grown Men
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
69
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74
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
63
Gunnin for that #1 Spot
68
Heartbeat Detector
34
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68
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55
Irina Palm
69
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60
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68
Kabluey
62
Kiss the Bride
63
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82
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38
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70
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64
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30
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33
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53
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74
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52
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52
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71
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84
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61
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69
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61
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83
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72
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51
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55
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29
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79
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71
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56
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51
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76
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66
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70
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62
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72
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81
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56
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xx
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71
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54
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70
Trumbo
72
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83
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56
Unknown Woman
86
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79
Visitor, The
62
Wackness, The
37
War, Inc.
64
Water Lilies
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
55
Without the King
72
Woman on the Beach
64
XXY
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75
Young@Heart
86
Up the Yangtze
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
84
My Winnipeg
84
Edge of Heaven, The
83
Chop Shop
83
Paranoid Park
83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Chris & Don. A Love Story
82
Last Mistress, The
81
Tell No One
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Reprise
79
Encounters at the End of the World
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Beauty in Trouble
76
Shotgun Stories
75
Young@Heart
74
Mongol
74
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Woman on the Beach
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Surfwise
71
To the Limit
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Roman de gare
70
Standard Operating Procedure
70
Trumbo
70
Love Songs
70
Caramel
69
Go-Getter, The
69
Operation Filmmaker
69
Jellyfish
68
Kabluey
68
Heartbeat Detector
68
Honeydripper
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
66
Son of Rambow
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
64
Married Life
64
Dreams with Sharp Teeth
64
XXY
64
Water Lilies
64
Fall, The
63
Foot Fist Way, The
63
Gunnin for that #1 Spot
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
62
Stuck
62
Expired
62
Wackness, The
62
Kiss the Bride
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
61
On the Rumba River
60
Fugitive Pieces
60
Brick Lane
60
Jihad for Love, A
59
Blind Mountain
57
Flawless
56
Unknown Woman
56
Then She Found Me
56
Sangre de mi sangre
55
Quid Pro Quo
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
55
Irina Palm
55
Bra Boys
55
Without the King
54
Tracey Fragments, The
53
Mister Lonely
52
Diminished Capacity
52
Elsa & Fred
52
Mother of Tears, The
52
My Blueberry Nights
51
Finding Amanda
51
Promotion, The
51
Savage Grace
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
47
Bella
45
Full Grown Men
38
Life Before Her Eyes, The
37
War, Inc.
34
Holding Trevor
33
Miss Conception
30
Meet Bill
29
Red Roses and Petrol
xx
Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Last Days
Picturehouse
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for language and some sexual content
Starring
Michael Pitt,
Lukas Haas,
Asia Argento,
Scott Green,
Nicole Vicius,
Ricky Jay,
and
Thadeus A. Thomas
Last Days is filmmaker Gus Van Sant's fictional meditation on the inner turmoil that engulfs a brilliant, but troubled musician in the final hours of his life. (Picturehouse)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Musical
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Gus Van Sant
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Gus Van Sant
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: October 25, 2005
Theatrical: July 22, 2005
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
97 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
Nominated, Golden Palm, 2005 Cannes Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Village Voice
Dennis Lim
The brilliant concluding chapter in the death trilogy that inspired Gus Van Sant's artistic rebirth.

100
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
A true American tragedy, directed with skill and conviction.

100
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
One of this year's indisputably great films.

100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Last Days is a definitive record of death by gradual drug exhaustion. After the chills and thrills of "Sid & Nancy" and "The Doors," here is a movie that sees how addicts usually die, not with a bang but a whimper. If the dead had it to do again, they might wish that, this time, they'd at least been conscious enough to realize what was happening.

90
Newsweek
David Ansen
A hauntingly beautiful tone poem.

90
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Despite all of Van Sant's narrative feints and coy protestations, the audience is left with one searing memory after seeing Last Days, and that memory is of Cobain. Was he, as Gordon's character suggests at one point, simply a rock-and-roll cliche? Or was he a visionary genius, as the name of Pitt's character implies?

88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
The poetry of Last Days has a stoned grandeur.

88
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
In its unstated cynicism, beauty, and self-pity, Last Days fits the myth of Cobain like a torn pair of jeans.

88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
The result is a movie that seems not quite real and yet never false but somehow partakes of both -- rather like the prospect of death.

83
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
It's an experimental film about a sensational event, placing tragedy in the context of the dulling normality of human life and resisting easy interpretation, just as did the inexplicable death of Kurt Cobain.

80
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
What Last Days offers is a blank and narrative-free, but pitch-perfect, dreamscape on which to project your own personal ruminations on Kurt, fame, whatever, nevermind. If you have none, you're on your own.

80
Slate
David Edelstein
An extraordinarily potent brew.

80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
It's definitely NOT a conventional biopic about Kurt Cobain. (Nor, as its title oddly suggests, is it about the demise of writer-director Van Sant.) It's a tone poem, an elliptical, fictionalized meditation about the ill-fated rock 'n' roll superstar.

75
USA Today
Claudia Puig
The glacial pacing may put some people off, but it also has a hypnotic quality. And some viewers might find it fascinating to be a voyeur into someone's tortured psyche.

75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
The story is pure speculation, Van Sant's fantasy on what may have happened during those final days of self-isolation, but he loads the film with distinctive imagery.

75
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
There is a method to its madness, since the madness here is really Cobain's. Last Days mythologizes his suicide as a haunting act of fulfillment: the consummation of a life that had already ceased to be.

75
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
It's like a walking tour inside the head of a deeply troubled, deeply talented young man, where most of the systems have already shut down.

70
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Using long takes, largely improvised dialogue and an increasingly out-of-joint time frame, Van Sant chronicles the final hours of fictional but Cobain-like rock star Blake.

70
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Mr. Van Sant and his star, Michael Pitt, together with the cinematographer Harris Savides, set out to do a somber, rigorously distanced study of a man drained of all resources, and slowly though inexorably approaching his end. That they have done exactly what they meant to do is notable.
70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
In the end, it feels like a life aestheticized, not examined.

70
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
In the leading role Michael Pitt is neither good nor less than good. He simply mopes along druggedly for the film's ninety-seven minutes. Van Sant's inculcation of this non-performance is clearly part of his dogged negativism, his intent to purge his film.

70
Dallas Observer
Jean Oppenheimer
Last Days shouldn't be half as engrossing as it turns out to be.

63
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Van Sant, following "Gerry" and the superb "Elephant," is on the same elliptical quest. His journey is labored but undeniably hypnotic.

63
Premiere
Aaron Hillis
Van Sant has mastered this kind of driftingly contemplative imagery and his layered soundscapes would make Sonic Youth proud (of course, Kim Gordon makes an appearance), but the introduction of other characters fracture the film's greatest asset, its lonely first-person atmosphere.

60
Film Threat
Greg Bellavia
A victory for ambitious filmmaking if not always a successful attempt at character study.

60
Empire
Steve O'Hagan
A beguiling work of some beauty, this is a further move into a world of hypnotic, observational cinema for Gus Van Sant. But in the end, the detached style has the power to alienate as much as to enthral.

50
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Van Sant's refusal to delve into his subject in anything but an abstract way renders the movie pointless and frustrating -- a lyrical, lovely tone poem, signifying little.

50
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
While Last Days succeeds as a nature documentary, Van Sant fails to penetrate human nature. The result is a portrait without a face.

50
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
It's unclear if Van Sant intends to inspire guilt; here, as elsewhere, he is exasperatingly abstruse. And in this striving to not say too much, he ends up not saying much of anything at all.

50
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
How can one defend this prolonged mumble of a motion picture? Well, some of the motion has a hypnotizing grace.

50
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
It's a meticulous nest of interlocking elements, not at all haphazard. But in its unrelieved bleakness and singularity of vision, it supplies very little in the way of conventional movieness.

50
Variety
Leslie Felperin
Result is dead-on depiction of the hedonistic rock lifestyle, punctuated by sequences of haunting beauty but also quasi-religious imagery that borders on tacky.

40
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Yet music, the one thing that might have given the film some kick, is de-emphasized, with only two songs sneaking into the picture.

30
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
A film about a junkie rock musician, played by Michael Pitt at his most narcissistic, doing nothing in particular for the better part of 97 minutes isn't my idea of either a good time or a serious endeavor.

25
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
The bottom line of Last Days seems to be, fame's a bitch. Yes, Gus - now start making movies again that tell stories, please.

0
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
In trouble from its first minutes.


The average user rating for this movie is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 39 User Votes
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