Last Days

I sense that I am in the minority on this one, but I believe this is unquestionably one of Gus Van Sant’s best films. As a Gus Van Sant enthusiast myself, this is what I was missing from his filmography. It takes elements from both My Own Private Idaho and Elephant to put together a fantastic film about someone’s descent into a place they could never return from. This was beautiful. The use of perspective and context in this film is great. I love when a film gives different perspectives and contexts to the same scene and Gus Van Sant does that so well in this film. Some may find it repetitive but I honestly thought it was great. I could also go on and on about how Van Sant films and depicts the Pacific North West and how well he does it. The colours he uses, particularly the greens and the blues in this one are so spot on its stunning. Somehow Gus Van Sant has been able to make me realize that different parts of North America have a mood that goes along with them, I can’t pinpoint exactly what that is, but whatever he does with his films, that is the feeling I get when I think of the Pacific North West. I can understand why people view this film as boring and think that nothing happens but I truly get enjoyment out of the emptiness and the loneliness of it. The drawn out awkwardness, the silence, the incoherent sounds, everything about it is just great to me. Once again, an incredible film by Gus Van Sant, I really want to see more of this in the future from him because I miss this style of film so badly.