Gus Van Sant's Last Days

Gus Van Sant's extraordinary new film Last Days is the brilliant culmination of a trilogy of films involving death, all based on actual media events. Gerry (2002) featured Matt Damon and Casey Affleck as two friends becoming hopelessly lost in the desert, as the camera stalks their movements; extremely long shots of them walking form much of the film's running time, as they slowly realize the inevitability of their impending demise.

Elephant (2003) was inspired by the Columbine shootings, the events of two high-schoolers' murderous rampage unfolding with an overlapping time structure, as the tragic day is examined from multiple angles. Last Days riffs upon Kurt Cobain's suicide, focusing on the final hours leading up to this event. Last Days is the most fully realized and aesthetically satisfying film of the trilogy, a truly singular and sensual experience.

This film is the apotheosis (so far) of Gus Van Sant's remarkable career reinvigoration, in which he has finally emerged from the wilderness of conventional filmmaking that reached its nadir with the ill-conceived remake of Psycho (1998) and the impersonal and utterly forgettable Finding Forrester (2000). With this trilogy, and especially Last Days, Van Sant returns to the spirit and inventiveness of such early career triumphs as Mala Noche (1985), Drugstore Cowboy (1989), and My Own Private Idaho (1991).

For his most recent films, Van Sant gained inspiration from iconic European filmmakers such as Bela Tarr and Chantal Akerman, and their groundbreaking transformations of cinematic chronology and space. Specifically, Bela Tarr's seven-hour masterpiece Satantango (1994) is a major touchstone to Van Sant's stylistic strategies. This film's overlapping time structure and long takes following character's movements informs the entire trilogy.

Similarly, Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), her three-hour study of a woman's household and lifestyle rituals, inspires such scenes in Last Days in which his protagonists performs such mundane tasks as making himself cereal and macaroni and cheese.