Last Call

I can go dark. I don't mind sadness. But, give me a reason . The metier of this film is the towering performance of Rhys Ifans as the poet Dylan Thomas. It would not be out of step to call it the entire film. The rest just window dressing. It's not that the performances are bad, it just that this movie wallows in its own obscurity. We have no reason to care about our characters, let alone it's protagonist. It's attempts at humor, it's attempt at being abstract and art house fall away. We're left with a depressing jumble of sound bytes. To it's credit, much of the monochrome photography is excellent, and gives it a period elegance. Perhaps, if you're a Thomas expert, this will already speak to you; but, if you want to know the man, this is not the place to start.

I had the privilege and pleasure of attending a screening of this film and I wish that I could award it more than ten (out of ten) stars. Intelligent, insightful, impactful. Complex, compelling. Sensational, stupendous, spectacular. An exceptional concept, exceptionally done. The ovations and accolades this film received at the Rio, Savannah and Arizona film festivals is an indicia of that which is to come for this award worthy work. The writing - the production - the direction - the acting - all tremendous. Steven Bernstein did what the very best do: he positioned everyone involved with this film to be the very best they could be - he positioned everyone for success - he made everyone with whom he worked better than they might otherwise have been.

I'm a big fan of John Malkovich, love Tony Hale although I've only seen him in comedy and thought Rhys Ifans was legendary in Notting Hill so I was fascinated by the casting of Last Call but I thought that being about a revered poet it might lean towards arthousey pretentiousness especially as I knew it was partly shot in black and white. However, I found this film to be surprising and extraordinary in every way and I loved it. The script is written by the director Steven Bernstein and is beautifully poetic without being annoyingly abstract, it's also expertly directed but unique, it doesn't come together like a typical Hollywood movie, it feels unusual, and the mix of colour/black and white I interpreted as the alcoholic deliriums Thomas often inhabits lacking the colour and clarity of his more sober, vivid moments. The performances by the entire cast including Romola Garai and Zosia Mamet are outstanding; it's a pithy piece full of complicated characters all fighting to survive in Thomas's fragile narcissistic web and requires a lot of acting talent which the cast possessed in spades. Thomas at first glance is a stereotypical flawed genius but Bernstein's words and Ifans' portrayal is so complete, so somehow full of humanity whilst also being clearly monstrous that I was totally enthralled. I have some experience of loving someone who was a slave to the drink and I felt Last Call showed the desperate pain of a rabid alcoholic without making him or those who love him into victims. Last Call is about the life of one man and I'm sure Thomas would have loved it not because it is flattering but because it is art at its best; truthful and moving and really in all its aspects an homage to great film-making.

The cast is immaculate, with Rhys Ifans delivering an absolute knockout, Oscar worthy performance as Dylan Thomas, and the rest of the ensemble follows suit. I really enjoyed the way this film at times felt like an intimate stage play, then danced back into feeling like a large budget arthouse film all within moments. The scene with Malkovich over the surgical table was just phenomenal. A true classic in the genre.

After I watched Last Call I was driving around my hometown and in my mind I played again and again scenes from Last Call, I heard the passion and tragic beauty of his words, and the escalating accompanying notes and I could feel the same gripping emotions. The battles we all face. The knot in my stomach that made me want to burst into tears was coming back all over again as I could understand the universal tragedy and agony of being alive on this planet, of being an awake soul. Just like his poetry. If that is not a great film, I don't know what is...