The Last Supper

Now here's a weird premise for a black comedy: a bunch of liberal postgrad students have a redneck over for dinner and accidentally kill him during an argument about politics. They decide that it'd be a good idea to invite more right-wingers over and - if they fail to be convinced to liberalise their views - kill them too. Such is the premise for 'The Last Supper'.

Apart from the obvious black comedy here, the film has a nice theme running through it about the dangers of taking political dogma too far - be it from the left or the right. Indeed the film takes these positions too far through its characters, do overt racist nutters like that played by Bill Paxton really exist? Perhaps; I'm off to Texas later this year so there's a good chance I could meet some. I remember being a liberal postgrad, but no-one I knew was ever as wet and intellectually superior as these guys. Well - maybe one or too were. But we never lived in a mansion cooking massive 3-course meals for each other and having randoms over for an intellectual discussion between wine courses.

The film gets a bit in-your-face at the end when Ron Pearlman gives a speech from the pulpit of righteousness about how everyone should throw aside their preconceptions and learn to live and let live, but overall it just about hits the right mark.

Watching it made me feel as if I was sitting through a feature length TV episode rather than a film. Stacy Title (a female director - yay!) has done little else, perhaps not a surprise as the camera-work didn't feel right throughout. 'Last Supper' is notable for being an early Cameron Diaz film. With a release year of 1995 it came out just after Diaz's big break 'The Mask', but I assume this was filmed shortly before she broke it through to the big time. Also there's a brief appearance by Elizabeth Moss as the missing girl (she only appears as a photo on a 'missing' poster - so blink and you'll miss her).

It's a funny film that's interesting and has enough laughs to remind you that it's not meant to be taken entirely seriously. Don't expect any major political revelation though, its view of left v right and the US culture wars is far too simplistic for that.