Critic Reviews
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Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
Though it gains traction toward the end, viewers may finally feel puzzled or indifferent. You expect a bit more from the end of the world.
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Scott Tobias, NPR
Rehashing old arguments in the hours before certain death is a tedious waste of time - theirs, and ours.
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V.A. Musetto, New York Post
If the end of the world was just hours away, would New Yorkers still be able to get takeout? Yes, if Abel Ferrara's mind-bending "4:44 Last Day on Earth'' is any indication.
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Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
Ferrara movingly celebrates connection, cooking life down to just its barest essence: a man, a woman and a need.
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Scott Bowles, USA Today
Ferrara doesn't give his protagonists room to do much beyond have arguments and sex (though the intimacy is shot well).
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A.O. Scott, New York Times
Your last day - or, as it happens, the whole planet's last day - will be just like every other one. Mr. Ferrara makes this point with ingenuity and characteristic thrift by using found news footage to provide images of apocalypse.
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David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
4:44: Last Day on Earth quickly devolves into an absolutely endless piece of work that's rife with laughably avant-garde elements and underdeveloped, one-dimensional characters.
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Rob Humanick, Projection Booth
Intermittently captures the sense of human desperation it strives for, as if to say the best we can hope for is to crawl past the finish line.
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Paul Chambers, Movie Chambers
Too many things were left unexplained about the end of the world. Why not a greater sense of panic? How was the internet still up and running so smoothly? I'm just one of those guys who wants everything to fit into place by the end. It didn't.
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Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine
The apocalypse gets the soul-searching erotic chamber play treatment in one of Abel Ferrara's best films.
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Mike Scott, Times-Picayune
An exercise in emotional tedium.
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Brian Orndorf, BrianOrndorf.com
Uncompromising in its hallucinatory qualities and densely symbolic, 4:44 is a difficult sit, better appreciated for its appealing thespian swings than any of its intended meaning.
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Glenn Lovell, CinemaDope
... the last thing we'd expect from the aging enfant terrible behind Bad Lieutenant and King of New York ... comes off as a somber testimonial/warning commissioned by a think tank overseen by Al Gore ...
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Louis Proyect, rec.arts.movies.reviews
Well, it's better than "Melancholia" but strictly for Abel Ferrara fans like me.
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Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
A dreary and unappealing film about a couple of messed-up New Yorkers and what they choose to do just before the end of the world.
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Stephanie Zacharek, Movieline
Watching the excessively craggy Dafoe and the excessively nubile Leigh roll around on their pre-Apocalyptic mattress was certainly good for a giggle.
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Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
I can't say it's my favorite Ferrara, and it's extremely downbeat, but it's also amazingly effective for such a low-budget, maverick effort.
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Frank Lovece, Film Journal International
The ever-original Abel Ferrara offers a stunningly believable final day among New Yorkers waiting, like the rest of the world, for the final hour of planet Earth.
Read all 18 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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A look at how a painter and a successful actor spend their last day together before the world comes to an end.
Bad Film! This film must have been pure profit for the makers. I think about 20 percent of it must have been archived footage from around the world. The biggest problem I… More
A look at how a painter and a successful actor spend their last day together before the world comes to an end.
Bad Film! This film must have been pure profit for the makers. I think about 20 percent of it must have been archived footage from around the world. The biggest problem I had with this movie is that it reminded me of a mediocre film school project at best. It tried to be artsy but failed. It tried to be philosophical but failed. It tried to be an emotional tale of a shared ending and failed. It tried to tie all these together with the worst music and sound effects that I have heard in some time. My ears are still ringing. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this one unless you happen to be in the mood to be severely underwhelmed.
In a large apartment high above the city lives our couple. They're in love. She's a painter, he's a successful actor. Just a normal afternoon except that this isn't a normal afternoon, for them or anyone else. Because tomorrow, at 4:44 am, give or take a few seconds, the world will come to an end far more rapidly than even the worst doomsayer could have imagined. The final meltdown will come not without warnings, but with no means of escape. There will be no survivors. As always, there are those who, as their last cigarette is being lit and the blindfold tightened, will still hope against hope for some kind of reprieve. For a miracle. Not our two lovers. They like the majority of the Earth's population have accepted their fate: the world is going to end.
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was waiting for an epic ending, but my guess was right half way through... this film was done on what.. one hand held camera? and a lot of youtube clips mixed together to make it all... educational and... stoned for the stoners... how ever, really smart, interesting and epic way of… More
was waiting for an epic ending, but my guess was right half way through... this film was done on what.. one hand held camera? and a lot of youtube clips mixed together to make it all... educational and... stoned for the stoners... how ever, really smart, interesting and epic way of looking at it.... I was just hoping for a massive cliax at the end, then that would be an epic sequel to ah... one of them.. Armageddon... Deep Impact.... Day After Tomorrow... I love them flicks but THIS ONE.... I'll give ya 3 quid... take it or leave it... talk to me... terry tibs!
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Dafoe and Leigh moap around their New York loft as they await the end of the world, due to arrive at 4:44 the next morning.
The advent of digital video has meant film-making has become much more accessible. Whereas in the past it would cost a fortune and take a lot of convincing to… More
Dafoe and Leigh moap around their New York loft as they await the end of the world, due to arrive at 4:44 the next morning.
The advent of digital video has meant film-making has become much more accessible. Whereas in the past it would cost a fortune and take a lot of convincing to make would be financiers part with their cash, now you just need a camera and some talent. Ferrara has a camera.
From the opening scene of Leigh smearing paint on her pretentious Pollock style canvas, I knew this movie was not for me. Every character epitomizes the sort of New York post-Warhol, Lou Reed wannabe intellectual that makes the rest of America despise the city. For some reason Ferrara seems to think audiences want to watch these douchebags dance around their lofts, cigarette in one hand, glass of wine in the other, while the Dalai Lama gives a talk about achieving harmony in the background.
The movie seems partly funded by Skype, characters are constantly using it to communicate, mostly to watch other douchebags dance around their lofts. I don't think I've ever heard the name of a product spoken so many times in one movie. At one point a character even gets corrected for mispronouncing it as "sky-pee". Yep, those New York liberals hate big corporations, except when they make stuff they use themselves.
If you're the type of person who wears black-rimmed glasses even though you don't need them, this may be the film for you. If however you're not an insufferable prick, avoid this.
Oh, and in Ferrara's mind, even on the last night on earth you'll still be able to order Chinese takeout.
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