Joseph Ledux

A beautiful--and at times very funny--movie. Of the various last-hours-on-Earth movies I've seen, and here I refer mainly to Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, and Last Night, this one strikes me as the most realistic in terms of how everyday people might react to their inescapable and impending doom. Something else I give this movie high marks for is that it doesn't go soft at the end. The cataclysm is a global firestorm sparked by the impact of a large comet that takes about twelve hours to work its way from the site of impact to this setting in Australia. And in the last few moments it doesn't just fade out like Last Night does. No, you get a full view of what's coming and it is terrifying. All the same it's a moving and believable portrait of a selfish and shiftless young man turning into a decent human being over the course of half a day, thanks to the unexpected intercession of a young girl who just wants to find her father before the end comes. And who among us wouldn't rather die a better person than they lived? Wonderful movie, can't recommend it highly enough. See it.

I'm one of an uncountable number of people who are stricken to tears, without truly understanding why, every single time seeing this brilliant performance. Maria Falconetti is a woman whose loveliness has nothing to do with conventional ideas of beauty and sexual appeal. She surpasses such mundane things. As old as this movie is, it's still considered one of the very best performances of all time. The truth of that has no need of explanation.

I loved the entire series. Season 3 was a great one and though I lament the cancellation of the show, the final episode was a really grim but satisfying conclusion to the series. Which still, nonetheless, left enough of a door open for any potential revival of the series in the future.

Just watched Come and See. Almost wish I hadn't. I believe this is the most harrowing movie I've ever seen. If that sounds like I'm being negative about the movie, I'm not. If such a film of such absolute brutality can ever be said to be beautiful, then this is one beautiful film. The fresh-faced and naive teen protagonist looks like he's seventy years old by the end of the movie, with good reason. This movie is such a difficult watch that I found myself hoping that it exaggerated historical events, but all the while I knew better. The things that the despicable Nazi Einsatzgruppen did in the eastern Soviet Union during WW2 are literally beyond exaggeration. And anyway, the director inserts a few brief snippets of historical black-and-white film footage towards the end to reassure the watcher that yes, he was seeing actual events. The final title card makes it even more plain, in that during the war "628 Byelorussian (Belarussian) villages were burned to the ground by the SS, along with all their inhabitants." And if you don't want to see that, you should avoid this movie like the black plague.