Ridiculous: Our Review of ‘Last Moment of Clarity’

Ridiculous: Our Review of ‘Last Moment of Clarity’

Last Moment of Clarity is the Krisel Brothers’ movie about Sam (Zach Avery), an American delivery boy in Paris. Sam has actor-y looks, a reminder of an adage, and probably a classist one. That if a working-class man does not look like one, he must have damage. We eventually find out that damage as the movie shows his past life with his photographer/ actress girlfriend Georgia (Samara Weaving). Fate takes that wonderful life away from him, as Georgia receives a bullet in the head. He runs away to Paris to forget that life until he goes to a movie theater, watches something. And he sees Lauren (also Weaving), an actress he thinks is a blonde Georgia.

This movie, then, becomes about Sam’s journey from Paris to the land of actresses, Los Angeles. There, he tries to find out whether Georgia and Lauren are the same person, which, he is already convinced himself that she is. And it shows that journey through incompetent film making. It makes its audience suffer through B-rolls, blurry visuals, and unnecessary lens flares. There’s some bad framing here. The score also tries to make us feel bad for Sam. And sure, we are all a bit creepy, but there is no way in the year of our Lord 2020 that we can sympathize with him. At least not in the way that this movie presents him.

Another ridiculous part of this movie is Kat (Carly Chaikin), a PR person who turns out to be someone from Sam’s small town. She, for some reason, gives Sam access to Lauren, and that access includes letting him into parties where he can meet Lauren and call her Georgia. Incompetent visual filmmaking goes hand in hand in equally bad writing. Sam makes his intentions clear instead of playing it cool like more interesting weirdoes do. And yes, not all women are allies to each other. But the movie is equally bad at convincing us why Kat would let Sam chase after Georgia instead of calling the good cops. Kat has the kind of flaws that men would write for women, showing women as enabling men instead of helping each other.

Film criticism has not always been about fairness, because life’s not fair, but in my defense, the movie is not fair to its actors. Chaikin is only here because Kat Dennings probably said no to this script. And that comparison probably echoes what critics used to say about Weaving. Here, Weaving proves her versatility, showing she can both play spunky girlfriends and airhead actresses. One of them is an archetype and another makes Weaving wear a bad wig. The question now is why this movie is nicer to her – ish – than it is to everyone else. That includes Brian Cox and Udo Kier, getting roles too small for their talents. Sandbagging these actors is the last straw.

  • Release Date: 6/6/2020
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While Paolo Kagaoan is not taking long walks in shrubbed areas, he occasionally watches movies and write about them. His credentials are as follows: he has a double major in English and Art History. This means that, for example, he will gush at the art direction in the Amityville house and will want to live there, which is a terrible idea because that house has ghosts. Follow him @paolokagaoan on Instagram but not while you're working.
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