4:44 Last Day on Earth (2012)

50% of critics liked it
(24 reviews)
36% of users liked it
(882 ratings)

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… More 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. -- (C) IFC

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 25 min.
Directed By: Abel Ferrara
Written By: Abel Ferrara
Genres: Drama, Science Fiction & Fantasy

In Theaters: Mar 23, 2012 Limited
Studio: IFC Films

Critic Reviews

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.
Scott Tobias, NPR
Rehashing old arguments in the hours before certain death is a tedious waste of time - theirs, and ours.
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.
Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
Ferrara movingly celebrates connection, cooking life down to just its barest essence: a man, a woman and a need.
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).
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.
Mike Scott, Times-Picayune
An exercise in emotional tedium.
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.
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 ...
Louis Proyect, rec.arts.movies.reviews
Well, it's better than "Melancholia" but strictly for Abel Ferrara fans like me.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Chris Cabin, Filmcritic.com
It's a film by a cynic, to be sure, but a cynic who still is in desperate love and voracious lust with life.
Sam Adams, AV Club
The mechanics of the pending cataclysm don't interest Ferrera so much as the emotional stakes: How do people act when there's no future left?
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
[VIDEO] Abel Ferrara peaked a long time ago, but his unique cinematic take on Manhattan is always a welcome distraction.

Read all 17 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Eric H

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.