The Last Minute

Plot synopsis:
The film darkly lampoons success, failure, and show business.
Billy Byrne is famous, the new big thing, yet the film doesn't say what's the great idea that got him there, he is just suddenly on top, everywhere and adored. Women, money, fame, then everything changes and Billy finds himself being rejected, a failure, he is not so good anymore. He turns to friends but they are busy on their own thing. Goes from enjoying luxuries to living in the streets, consuming drugs and finding homeless people giving him some sort of shelter underground, and beyond that: emotional shelter, a tribe. A new woman, a new life underground.
Pay close attention to the black dog appearing on the film when something bad is about to happen, and pay close attention to Billy abilities to affect public lighting due to his "own energy". Billy totally losses his magic and can't even make one single light blink.
Still obsessed with fame and success, tries hard to come up with some magic plan, strategies, communication campaigns (again not clear what's his line of work), and finds friends doing nothing while discovering the one who betrayed his trust. Billy discovers there is more than the idea, the plan, and finds himself talking about semantics, messages and content beyond the words. Seems like a clue on a personal discovery on what path to take.
Here things begin to appear cryptic. Why? because the movie goes on a mission no showing you the protagonist along with more than enough metaphors that can be applied to almost anyone.
Deep in drugs, dirty, stinky and a total disaster finally makes it to the big president of the company to present his great ideas (written on dirty paper) only to find out his old friend now already working with them. Billy argues, and even warns them about the danger and them being dangerous in many ways, but his friend answers "I already know", and claiming it doesn't affects him because he is aware they are using him, just like he is using them (in front of the president).
Billy seems to open his eyes and being unable to explain his idea, gain attention and appearing as a dirty unhealthy drug addict goes to the bathroom to put some more drugs in. In frustration he seems to see the light. He finally comes with the plan of closing a deal with the drugs he gained access to, the deal is accepted and asks for tickets to Greenland so he can leave his dirty life behind and begin a new one on a natural paradise.
The complex metaphors (but clear on screen) present a new Billy willing to give up his world for a new one, includes his new girlfriend on the plan but she appears unable to grasp the concept of freedom and fails to go on with him. Finally opens his eyes leaving everything and everyone behind as a message up to the viewer to elaborate. His new girlfriend rejects the tickets and wants drugs, he leaves on a limousine and begins to take his piercings off. Billy doesn't know, but he is back (as a human being) and while the car drives on the road: all the lights don't blink, but they shut down immediately as a message that he is way better and above from any place he has ever been in life as a person.
The movie ends with him on Greenland, the place of the initial take on the film where hi gives this speech on time, and what would you do on your last minute. Clues were left on different sites on the web about interviews, comments and director hints for better understanding of the movie, difficult to find all that info in just one site.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
Stephen Norrington's "Blade" is undoubtedly a highlight of recent American cinema.
"The Last Minute" is scatterbrained, indecisive and consequently confusing and also too derivative of other hip directors (Danny Boyle, Guy Ritchie)."The Last Minute" is semi-autobiographical of Norrington's experience with the entertainment industry.
While it's confusing as to just what kind of "artist" the protagonist Billy Byrne is, it is clear that his exploits mirror that of Norrington's.
In this dilemma, Norrington asks some very good existential questions about the true worth of an artist.
This shows that the true value of art is not determined by things like mass-appeal and critical praise.
A better film would have stayed with these questions.Norrington's account of a bought, sold and rejected artist is too complex, because its personal nature interferes with the larger themes and messages.
First, Norrington shows a throw away entertainment industry that is fickle and disloyal, meaning many artists are bound to get stepped on.
It is a nice set-up for a satire, but then the film takes a misstep by having Byrne realize that he had little life experience in the first place.
The movie is then suddenly about Byrne's quest for personal experience and redemption, losing the satirical edge the film starts off wanting.
"The Last Minute" is too personal for its own good.The story then takes another step in the wrong direction by suddenly morphing into an Oliver Twist-inspired story about the underbelly of London.
The Christopher Guest movie "The Big Picture" was a similarly satirical look at a young Hollywood director.
Both movies use humor and absurdity to poke fun at and criticize the entertainment business, but "Big Picture" works so much better because it is consistent and concise.
That's not to say Norrington's film is uninspired or dull.
He again uses stylish techniques like time lapse, jump-cut editing and extreme mood lighting to show the frantic atmosphere of big cities that leads to large-scale marginalization of many citizens.
There are bombastic musical sequences and over the top characters which feel way too similar to trends started by Danny Boyle, Guy Ritchie and Baz Lurhman.
Norrington proved in "Blade" to be highly original and trend-setting himself, and has no need to borrow the quirks of other filmmakers.
Let's not forget that this is one of the first guys to use pre-"Matrix" bullet-time.It's a shame Norrington has claimed to have given up on motion pictures.
to compare this to any guy ritchie film is foolish and plain out bad reviewing.
many would simply class it in the same school because it is british, it features "hip" newcomers, and the direction is very flashy and effects rich.....well except for the british part this describes most every film coming out now.
the last minute is as far from guy ritchie as one can get.
one forever feels that around the next corner will be the demon awaiting to devour the souls of the main characters, but lemarchand's box is not quite so literal as it is in a film like hellraiser.
it is true that the plot balances on the old carpe diem type thing, but unlike every hollywood dungheap to tread this ground in the last 20 years, this film manages to do it with some grace, some originality, and with a large dash of realism amongst the severe surrealism.
The impression I received watching this film, which at times teeters on the brink of unbelievable intensity, is Stephen Norrington's experience making "Blade".
Jason Isaacs will wow you in a way you've never seen him before, I thought "James Bond!" right away.
The film almost loses its way with the Oliver Twist second act (and I know people who love the film only because of that...
The Last Minute is one of those truly rare motion pictures that deserves far wider recognition than it will ever get.
Visually, The Last Minute is as impressive a looking picture as I've ever seen.
One caveat:  Director Norrington wisely employs a terrific device by which we never know what our protagonist does to earn then lose his fame (director and star are on record as being at odds as to what Billy actually does).
Personally, I laughed (in horror, but laughed) at this scene but I know others who were put off of the movie altogether because of these few seconds.Every other aspect of the truly most bizarre club "Prosthetic" is genius (as, actually is the moment in question, just too off-putting for most people).
It is in this long scene at "Prosthetic" where perhaps the films most brilliant moment occurs  which is, of course, Percy "Sledge" breaking into the Sinatra classic "I've got you under my skin" while wreaking a gleeful malevolent stream of violence that is about as close to movie magic as we've ever seen.
Norrington has a cast that, quite simply, could not have been improved upon with Max Beesley giving a stand out performance as Billy  to watch the youthful energy of his clubby dance moves and the enthusiasm with which he embraces his burgeoning fame slip into confused despair, hopelessness and attempt at self redemption.
As the aforementioned Percy "Sledge"  Jason Isaacs is nothing short of terrifying, executing his violence with a Fred Astaire like grace and precision which is utterly disarming.
Don't waste your time, except Now. A really weird, unknown and rare film that attacks you out of no where and strikes you to the bottom of the unpredictable downer pit.Long story short, it is about a guy who is the new and hip guy, until he isnt and falls down to obscurity, including becoming a Junky.
As you might already have written a couple of times about this film, there isnt much to read about it out there, it seems to be a semi autobiographical piece of work about its director Stephen Norrington (Blade, Death Machine, League of....), which even though i hope he didnt became an addict, who left directing & directing right after "League of...
Its themes of Fame, celebrety cult, creativity, ego centrecism, exploitation and much more couldn't be more relevant today, in the age of social media reality tv and talent shows where most of the western and eastern world seems to seek fame and attention like heroin addicts to an absurd extreme.
We live in an age of people becoming famous for the sake of it without having any talents whatsoever and others for having video channels with millions of followers without doing anything more than reacting to other videos infront of the camera, people watching other people play video games and so on.
What surprised me about this film was its sheer nihilistic madness and chaotic nature that until the very end doesnt quite seem to match up, by the end you'll understand and as only a few movies do this flick gets better the more you watch it.Be warned this film ain't for the faint heart and especially is not for the traditional moviegoer, at times it reminded me of the spontaneous chaotic nature of Godard' s Breathless (make no mistake it is not near as good as Breathless).
This film surely deserves more attention and a cult following, not many people have seen or do even know about that film, so i say spread the word for this bizzare and unique experiment called film.
Stephen directed 2 movies before this one and wrote one of those.
He seeks to shock the audience by subjecting us to a barrage of images and keeping the film moving at a lightning quick pace (aside from a few slow spots) It might have been enough to get by 20 years ago, but to today's much more jaded viewers it doesn't resonate nearly as much.
Not to say the film is a total loss as Beesley provides a pretty good, if not especially engaging, performance and I was rarely bored with it.
For a film that argues you shouldn't waste even a second of life, why would one choose to kiss 120 minutes away on this?
My Grade: C-DVD Extras: Director's commentary; Max Beesley commentary; Producing of TLM, Style of TLM, Character Tree video; Cast and Crew Bios; Crafting Prosthesis; SN Connection; What Billy does; 3 music videos that did nothing for me; 4 faux TV show snippets; Production Notes; a game to determine how many weeks you have left until your 90th birthday and you get short clips of interviews or behind the scene footage (I had to F'n clue how to work this); Theatrical Trailer; Trailers for "Sex and Lucia", "The Believer", and "Scratch" (Honestly there may be a bit more but the extras menu is akin to the one found on the bonus disc of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" collection in as far as how you have to navigate through it).
As a ex-Brit who is of a similar age and born in the same place as Norrington, but I am wondering what went wrong with him.
I had never heard of this film until I saw it advertised on STARZ movie channel.
I thought "oh good, fellow Brit, sounds like a good movie".
Oh dear was I wrong....Parts I liked (no spoilers)...the camera work, Max Beesley's character, comic touches....Parts I didn't like....Tom Bell's character (totally unbelievable) as to was Jason Issacs, the end, the middle and about 90% of the story.
Some of the scenes with Jason Issacs (Percy) actually were so gross and unbelievable that two of the people I was watching this with asked me to turn it off.
The atypical gritty Guy Ritchie British school of modern film class has reared a muddled mess of a movie.
So wicked that I immediately started to hunt the internet for it.I was impressed by the very fine acting of Max Beesley, very convincing character transformations throughout the film.
Not since discovering Christian Bale did I feel like wanting to see more films from someone.Even though this movie centered around London's Underground, I felt like this could've been any city...reminding me of it's inhabitants running about half-asleep, forgetting (ignorance is bliss) about existence and valuing life.The movie made me feel guilty for feeling guilty about wanting to indulge and live a little in life.I recommend this movie anyone who likes movies that give you that feeling of "there's a message here for me"..
The synopsis of the film cited other titles such as "Fight Club" and "Trainspotting" yet I failed to make a connection.
The only thing I found to even be remotely like Fight Club was the main menu on the DVD.
It's almost as if the director wanted you to compare his movie to those.
Those movies have huge cult followings so even if The Last Minute was a decent movie, the fact that the director was so hell-bent on drawing the Tarantino/Ritchie/Lynch crowd he in reality just drew a crowd of critics.
outside of seeing this as auto-biographical for Norrington I can see it deals with his traumatic experiences with Blade.
One of the best scenes in a film I've seen in the last years is Jason Issacs doing his "I got you under my skin".
And I am not sure Dickens would have liked the Oliver Twist bit...
As for this being put in the same category with Trainspotting, Clockwork Orange and Fight Club, I can't see why people are bother, try to describe a film using normal words.
///// as for latest rumors that Norrington quit making movies, hey Steve, don't get mad, get even !
Although certainly not for the faint-hearted - there is some very confronting content - I have no hesitation in rating this as one of the best movies I've seen in a long time, and a must-see for any serious cinema fan.I watched this for the first time last night and as you can tell, I was hugely impressed.
I have long admired Norrington's fine work on 'Blade', and he undoubtedly transformed what might otherwise have been a real corn-fest into the keystone of a very successful franchise.
I was sad to read that Norrington famously had such a bad time making LXG that he swore he'd never make another film, and to date he still hasn't - which is a terrible waste of a great talent.
It's a real pity that such an obviously gifted writer-director has only been able to make four movies in 20 years - but I'm very glad he got to make this one!I'm also sorry that other viewers didn't enjoy it as much as I did ...
As mentioned, it is quite confronting in some parts and creates a powerful sense of unease, so I can understand why some won't appreciate its many virtues - but mega-kudos to Chris Blackwell and his colleagues for getting behind Norrington and letting him do this, because I have no doubt will come to be seen as his masterpiece, and I hope it will eventually be recognised a very fine and original film that deserved to reach a far wider audience.
I loved how he lets the audience go through so much of the film without showing what Billy actually makes/does - and the scene in which this is revealed is an absolute tour de force - Frank Harper as the ultimate cabbie from hell should get an Oscar - an astounding performance.
I love its cool and freaky visual style, the great music tracks, the wonderful locations, but I especially have to take my hat off to Norrington and his audio team for the soundtrack.
It's not just the music that's great - the entire sound design on this film is just *superb* - there is so much happening on the audio track in every scene, so many subtle touches, that you really MUST watch it with headphones on and get fully immersed, or you'll miss a big part of what makes it so cool and so weird.The performances were uniformly great but the underground kids are really amazing, Tom Bell is TERRIFYING, and Jason Isaacs is wonderful too - a big, juicy, scenery-chewing role if ever there was one, and he plays it to the hilt!
I really think is is a very potent film - profound, funny, edgy and one that leaves a very powerful impression on the viewer.
Stephen Norrington, What Have You Done???.
"The Last Minute" is an abysmal film.
I have seen some rather hideous films in my life, but frankly this one qualifies as one of the all time worst, particularly in light of the immense talent of writer & director Stephen Norrington, an otherwise fine cast, and some incredibly gifted technical people such as the editor and the cinematographer.
I sat through this ambitious film in its entirety because some very dear, close friends of mine loaned me the DVD and I made a commitment to them to watch it.
Furthermore, I have enjoyed Norrington's other films: "Blade," "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," and "Death Machine." "Blade" was a masterpiece, and I truly loved "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." Even "Death Machine" surpassed this depressing drivel.
Generally, I love all things British, but this dreadful film proved to be an exception to the rule.
I look forward to future Norrington films, and I envy anybody who can find anything remotely redeeming about this balderdash..
I was blown away by the style of Blade, directed by Stephen Norrington.
Something happened to the director between these two movies, as Blade had an incredible sense of style, and LXG was a complete mess of a movie.
In between these two movies, Stephen Norrington wrote and directed "The Last Minute."The less you know, the better, but the basics are:** Start Minor Spoilers **Billy Byrne is the next big thing.
He doesn't become a drug addicted homeless thief over night, and Mr. Norrington properly plays up the romanticism of that lifestyle.
We only see what we want to see.The movie skips ahead a year, and we see the reality of the situation.
Will he?** End Minor Spoilers **This movie moves slowly sometimes, and I wish there were sub titles, since I had some trouble with the accents in some scenes, but it's also got scenes that look like poetry.
Mr. Norrington has quite an eye.
I love watching Jason Isaacs.
I don't know if it's a British thing but it seems that British actors just have an incredible knack for playing villains and making them extremely sexy and appealing.
That said, The Last Minute is one of the most bizarre movies I have EVER seen.
Perhaps it's because I'm American, I really don't know, but I found this movie hard to follow (much like Clockwork Orange, another movie I never understood) and I really could have done without the drug scenes and violent fight scenes.As stated previously, Jason Isaacs was this movie's ONLY saving grace, and unfortunately even with him in it, I cannot really recommend this movie.However, if you are a Jason Isaacs fan and you just HAVE to watch every movie he's ever made (like me), then go ahead and watch it.
Gritty, dark, poetic, and funny-- with a cast of very talented actors by and large unknown to the American audience (one possible exception may be Jason Isaacs, who played Percy).
While there are elements in this movie that do remind me of other Brit classics such as: Snatch, Loch Stock, and perhaps, 24 Hours in London, it does stand on its own as a feature worthy of viewing.Billy Byrne, played by Max Beesely, is a starving artist who has a lot of hype behind his latest art project, the nature of which I'll omit here.
When critics and the public turn on him, Billy falls on hard times.
Drawn into a life of drug abuse and general mayhem, Billy takes another crack at the big time with his next great idea.
We end the movie with an implied flight to Greenland which neatly ties in with the opening scene of the movie.A very smart, existential film with wonderfully-colored characters.