LAST DAY OF SUMMER

The film touches on a serious issue that seems to be more and more prevalent: alienated young people turning against their peers.

If you’ve ever had a crummy entry-level job and a disgusting boss, then you know what it feels like to imagine sweet revenge on the day of your escape.  Except that when the last day really rolls around, you go through the motions, gather your things, and say goodbye politely, because nobody really does that stuff they think about.  Well, nobody but Joe.

Having endured a season working for a petty, abusive man (William Sadler) at a fast food restaurant Joe (DJ Qualls) finally snaps on The Last Day of Summer.  The constant nit-picking and obsessive demands to clean the toilet (“get the feces!”) are simply too much for him, so he procures a gun and hatches a plan to teach his boss a lesson.  Thing is, Joe isn’t really the violent type: he’s just suffered one too many injustices in his young life.

Somehow or other Joe makes it to the end of his shift without losing it, but he goes over the edge after being snubbed by a pretty girl (Nikki Reed).  The next thing you know, he’s holding her at gunpoint and dragging her to a cheap motel.  “Why wouldn’t you talk to me?” he demands, “We had a moment back there.”  In truth, the girl’s greatest mistake was making eye contact with Joe, momentarily flashing him a look of kindness and then going on her way.

As the movie unfolds, we learn that this is just the last of many perceived indignities in Joe’s life.  There’s the failed music career, the fact that he still lives at home, his skinny, scrawny body, and finally this awful job and a slight from a girl.  But the more Joe plays into his imagined weirdness, the more he realizes he isn’t that guy and (more importantly) doesn’t want to be that guy.  What exactly would someone like him do with a kidnapped girl?  With no real intention of harming her, they begin to talk.

What follows is akin to the world’s most awkward (yet strangely entertaining) therapy session. After discovering that he actually went to high school with his prisoner, Joe begins to open up, and the more he talks, the more he realizes that he might not have it quite so bad as he thinks.  In some respects you could actually consider him lucky. 

In one strange but transformative day, Joe gains the perspective that might just save him from turning into a real creep, or worse, a real criminal.  It’s a quirky little movie made relatable by DJ Qualls and Nikki Reed.  Though the potty humor at the restaurant is way over the top and an element of levity pervades, the film touches on a serious issue that seems to be more and more prevalent: alienated young people turning against their peers.  Given the headlines we’ve heard in the past several years, The Last Day of Summer has a positively happy ending.

DVD NOTES

DVD extras include a making-of featurette and the theatrical trailer.