joenusbaum
Smart dialogue delivered with flawless acting. Given the premise, I fully expected to cringe my way through this movie. Didn't happen once.It felt like watching a really good indie film from the '90s. If you're a fan of HBO's Togetherness, chances are this will be right up your street. Only expect to have way more fun, and find yourself actually wanting to spend time with these characters. This movie may not change your life but if you're in your thirties or forties it will deliver everything you're hoping for: fully-realized characters you feel like you already know having a lived experience you relate to at an uncanny depth. You may know where the journey is taking these four individuals, but less because of the predictability and more because it's where you want to go. Let yourself go there.
zif ofoz
A self discovery coming of age road trip story that never leaves the city!Clark and Will meet Alison and Ida and spend a night talking and having fun in a stretch limo while navigating the streets of LA. Two sets of strangers let their emotions and inhibitions go to have a few hours of fun before all four must return to their individual private lives.This charming story is about the chance encounter of people meeting and discovering how much they have in common and having fun while doing it. It's a great road trip story that never hits the road but instead stays on city streets.I caught this film because I recognized the names of Mary Elizabeth Ellis (Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Demetri Martin (Comedy Central) and both are excellent in this story!
alockenelson
This delivers lovely twists on the classic night out on the town tale. I really enjoyed all of the characters. They are all layered and entertaining - well-written and acted. Gorgeous beach sequence. I really liked seeing parents trying to find their own identity apart from their roles as parents but not in some cheesy, inspirational poster kind of way. Perfect rental for a de-stressing and food delivery kind of night.The director and editors must have enormous restraint to not overuse the super fun Jimmi Simpson and Charlyne Yi. In lesser hands, they might have put in more of these super fun and colorful characters but they knew that less was more with characters this cool.
www.ramascreen.com
THE LAST TIME YOU HAD FUN is by far the best movie I saw at L.A. Film Festival 2014 and I hope it gets the distribution it deserves because I think everybody should get to watch it at least once. It's one of those movies that's dialogue-driven and it focuses on a few characters and by the end of the story, you get to understand where they're coming from and why they have their own stance on life, in many ways, it reminds me of such classics as 'Swingers' and 'The Breakfast Club'. THE LAST TIME YOU HAD FUN's strength is in its script by Hal Haberman and along with the great direction by Mo Perkins and a fantastic ensemble cast, THE LAST TIME YOU HAD FUN is a rare gem that gets you laughing and looking at life from a different perspective.THE LAST TIME YOU HAD FUN is a great example of using low budget to its fullest benefit. It makes great use of the city. Many of the stars of this film are familiar faces who have done projects far more mainstream than this, and you can see how much they believe in this story, so much so that you wouldn't be able to picture anybody else in their roles. Elize Coupe plays Ida, cheated on by her husband and soon to be divorced. Her sister, Alison (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) who's married, takes Ida out for a night at a wine bar, so they can talk and talk their troubles away for hours. Demetri Martin is a successful lawyer, named Will, who's married and really wants to help his old pal, Clark (Kyle Bornheimer) who just got dumped by his wife for another woman. Will wants to take Clark away from his trouble, to take him on a night of party and careless drinking but Clark feels that they're too old for that scene. So Will and Clark run into Ida and Alison, and the night of those four people together begins. As they talk and experience one misadventure after another, they start noticing similarities and differences, they go through confessions about their marriage and other adult concerns and the four of them surprisingly connect. They set out to have a good time, but what they end up getting is something much deeper than that.THE LAST TIME YOU HAD FUN is a grown up comedy, underline the word comedy. Screenwriter Hal Haberman may want to present us these four insecure, conflicted individuals but the comedy remains strong from start to finish, there's not a single boring moment. The dialogue is fast, smart, funny and witty, it keeps the actors and the audience on their toes. Much credit to the actors' perfect comedic timing as well. The chemistry between the four of them is just perfect. The story spans over one night, and I love those kinds of stories, like 'Nick And Norah', you get to travel from one hotspot in town to another and by the end, not only do you know the characters really well, you can relate to what they're going through. There's parts about THE LAST TIME YOU HAD FUN that may make you question whether or not the movie even cherishes the idea of marriage and vows, because it seems to be breaking rules and not always in a good way. But THE LAST TIME YOU HAD FUN does a great job of dealing with themes of regrets and how hard it is to move forward from that regret and rise above it. You can call THE LAST TIME YOU HAD FUN a mid-life crisis dramedy, but I'd like to call it one of my favorite films I've seen all year.Read more at Ramascreen.Com
