Cinephile № 825 “The Last to See Them”

Recommendation: 3/5 Stars, STREAM

Plot: “Amidst the sun-bleached fields of southern Italy, a farming family’s isolated existence becomes besieged by a sinister destiny.” -IMDB

Review: For my 18th film of the 2019 AFI Fest, I wanted to see a daring indie film that could only be seen at a film festival. With “The Last to See Them,” the ending is known at the beginning of the film. We know the family featured in this movie are all going to die. Knowing the ending, we are left to piece together the puzzle. This means that every single moment of the film matters; every frame could be an important detail. From the introduction of characters to the fateful moment, you will feel like Sherlock Holmes trying to reconstruct a crime scene happening in real-time.

At times, the moments in this film can feel mundane. After all, we are watching a family go through their normal routines. As we inch closer and closer to their end, these mundane details matter more than any other film I have seen. Still, the film asks a lot of the audience. More than any other film I saw last year, this movie blends tension and a request for patience together in an almost unnerving fashion as we watch family dynamics and interactions with strangers play out before us.