The Last Minute

 

Picture:  B+     Sound:  B     Extras:  B-     Film: C+

 

 

Time is of the essence.  There is never enough time.  Do not wait till the last minute.  Countless adages that ruminate on time demonstrate that time, especially in conjunction with money, is a root metaphor and base concern in our society.  Numerous fictional texts, whether it is a film or novel, a comedy or drama, an enduring classic or disposable fad, provide various musings on our relationship with time, hoping to offer a keen insight or an affective response.  The Hours, Donnie Darko, Back to the Future, Hiroshima, Mon Amour demonstrate the diversity of films that speculate on passing opportunities, nostalgic desire, or enlivened anticipation; all posit questions, and answers, of a temporal nature to varying degrees of success. 

 

Stephen Norrington’s The Last Minute (2000) begins with Billy Byrne, an artist who is “the next big thing,” asking us, “What did you do this week?”  Billy’s opening monologue, introducing various calculations of how much time we have to “live” factoring in wasted time for meals, sleep, and travel, promises an insightful meditation on the importance of effective time usage.  Unfortunately, Norrington does not feel failing to deliver on a promise constitutes a waste of time.   The Last Minute follows the ascent, demise, and rebirth of Billy Byrne, the next big thing.  Billy is an artist swept up in the circus of agents, critics, and talk shows that all hail him as an artistic genius.  Billy’s artistic talents are never revealed, which may be the most insightful element of the film.  By failing to identify Billy’s art, Norrington suggests that the social consumption of art is not about its substance, rather its hype.  As the main character and his periodic asides, we are supposed to identify and sympathize with Billy.  However, intentions never guarantee results.

 

We follow Billy as he begins to buy his own press, seduced by the seedy side of success: drugs, sex, and masochistic surgical procedures (it must be the hot new thing in Britain).  However, another “next big thing” replaces Billy, and all the critics and agents are enamored with a new hollow prodigy.  Losing his girlfriend, wealth, and support, Billy retreats into an Oliver Twist-type world, where youths steal for a treacherous underground godfather.  The rest of narrative follows Billy as he attempts to find a sense of purpose, returning a sense of purity regarding his artistic pursuits.

 

The Last Minute, like Blade, is highly stylized; clever jump cuts, fast paced editing, witty camera play all recommend Norrington as a competent technician of the craft, at least visually.  However, a cynical reading suggests that The Last Minute is a narcissistic effort recounting Norrington’s troubles as the “next big thing” (with over 450,000 feet of footage shot for a 94 minute film, one can certainly entertain such a reading).  Serving as both the writer and the director, Norrington, according to many of the cast and crew interviews, is a demanding control-freak who wished to escape the demands of a Hollywood studio to make a more personal film.  The result: a series of trite aphorisms supplemented by countless cinematic references, albeit adroitly executed.  The film makes no apologies in its visual quotations from other films, even the synopsis on the DVD case references Fight Club, A Clockwork Orange, and Trainspotting.  However, it is what those references import that add substance to any film (a similar debate surrounds Kill Bill).  The most charitable reading of The Last Minute can only be ironic; that the film is all quotation and style, and thus lacking any real substance, might allude to the current state of cinematic art.  Again, this might be too charitable, since the film often slips into the pretentious self-importance reserved for the tragically hip.

 

This unrated director’s cut from Palm Pictures is presented in anamorphic widescreen with digital surround sound.  Originally shot on 35mm film, the transfer is crisp; rather helpful when most of the film takes place in the shadows.  A great deal of care went into the soundtrack and the cinematography.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is pretty good for a lower-budgeted film, but that does it does not improve the content much, and the music is just thrown all over the place.  This disc does boast over four hours of extras, but the menu interface is rather difficult to navigate.  Only images, and few signposts, light up as you move through the menus, further frustrating an already disgruntled viewer.  Most of the extras are cast and crew interviews, usually repeating what others had previously said.  A common theme was Norrington’s demanding work ethic and love of style, both patently noticeable in the film; every so often an actor or producer would describe Norrington as a “genius.”  I guess words, like the art Norrington criticizes, are quickly becoming void of meaning.

 

 

-   Ron Von Burg