Jandy Hardesty’s review published on Letterboxd:
So I have a very little bit of (uninteresting) history with my challenge movie, 1998's Last Night. I was first starting to become aware of film festivals around that time (my last year of high school), and this played at the St. Louis International Film Festival. I thought it sounded interesting, about people who know the world is ending that night, and figured I'd try to go. But when I told some friends about it, they were like, you know that's just gonna be everybody trying to have sex before the end of the world. I would've probably gone to the festival with, like, my mom, so I was like OH GOD NO and decided to see something else instead, always meaning to catch up with this eventually.
Well, eventually turned out to be tonight.
There is indeed a character who's trying to fulfill all his sexual fantasies before the end comes, so I probably made the right decision back then. But there's other stuff as well. Sandra Oh's character (uh, also named Sandra) has the most emotionally engaging arc, as a woman just trying to make it home to spend her last few hours with her husband. But vandals and thrill-seekers are out in force, and she ends up thrown together with Patrick, who tries to help her, but really just wants to be alone when the time comes. Their story together is the most satisfying of the ones we see. We also see Patrick's family, a very conservative and religious one, and his sister, who's out with the celebrators downtown.
It's always an interesting question and one several films have explored (I haven't seen it, but Seeking a Friend for the End of the World seems to have some similarities to this) - if you KNEW not only that you were going to die soon but that the world was going to end, what would you do? Does anything matter? Does everything matter? The answer is different for everyone, obviously, and it's kind of more interesting as a thought experiment than as a narrative. I enjoy films with multiple storylines that come together in interesting ways, and this tried to do that and sometimes succeeded and other times just didn't feel totally satisfying to me. (Is the end of the world supposed to be satisfying? Heh.)
I did quite like that the film doesn't spend any time at all discussing what the disaster is that's about to end the world - you kind of figure it out because, well, it's ticking on toward midnight and it's only getting brighter outside. It's one of those barely sci-fi films, and I like that when done well, and this is done fairly well. I just wanted it to engage me a little more than it did in all its storylines.
Here's how it entered my Flickchart:
Last Night < Outrage
Last Night > Ringu
Last Night > Bottle Rocket
Last Night < The Informant!
Last Night > Silent Light
Last Night < Thank Your Lucky Stars
Last Night < Out of Sight
Last Night > Tommy Boy
Last Night < Carefree
Last Night > Another Earth (an interesting matchup with a somewhat similar film)
Last Night < Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Final #2114 out of 3592 (41%)