The Last Time Reviews

Love LaBute? Mad for Mamet? Well, let me introduce you to Michael Caleo.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10

Finding the all-important Achilles heel is the central focus of The Last Time, a routine office drama with a love triangle that unexpectedly turns into a biting character study.

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A melodramatic disaster.

Full Review | Original Score: D

Seemingly developed at the David Mamet Institute for Twist-Laden Salesmen Dramas.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

Wildly entertaining ... Skillfully walks a fine line between black comedy and intense drama ... It's one of the year's best.

Full Review | Original Score: B+

A clever and twisty calling card for filmmaker Michael Caleo.

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If this isn't the most irritating film I've seen this year, it's close. No, I take that back. It is the most irritating film I've seen all year.

Full Review | Original Score: 0/10

A little bit nutty and pretty entertaining in a thoroughly unconvincing way. And watch out for that 11th-hour twist -- it's a head snapper.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

It alternates between bleak cynicism and a genuinely romantic sensibility, and this unusual combination makes the movie a great vehicle for Keaton and Valletta, and a compelling drama for the audience.

| Original Score: 3/4

[Writer-director] Caleo isn't able to sell The Last Time -- not the affair and especially not the ludicrous twist ending.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4

Feels like a script that was written backwards, as if the twist ending occurred to [writer-director] Caleo first and he then filled out a story to get to it. Fair enough, except getting there in this case is just no fun.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Strives for contemporary noir in tone but feels closer to an ineffective parody of James M. Cain filtered through faux David Mamet dialogue.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

exists to pad the resume of everyone whose name appears in the credits.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5

While his cast is first-rate, director-writer Michael Caleo doesn't know quite what his movie is about.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

For all the good work that went into it, the movie is as phony as a game of three-card monte.

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Akin to hip-hop culture's misappropriation of Scarface as a tale of gangsta empowerment, writer-director Michael Caleo crudely latches onto the surface misanthropy of David Mamet's work to fuel his forgettable first feature.

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Full Review | Original Score: 1/6

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