Last Nite at Sam's
2023 · 10m · USA
Directed by Devon Manney
Tones: dark, darkly comic, tense
In a dive bar getting gentrified out of existence, a remote-control squabble escalates into a full brawl and then a riot. Animated, loud, and unembarrassed about its own ugliness.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Animated dive-bar riot scored like a panic attack. Manney isn't interested in being tasteful, which is the whole point.
Manney's hand-animated descent from jukebox night into ultraviolence — Don Hertzfeldt linework wired to a Safdies panic attack. The gentrification angle gives the ugliness its target.
Hand-animated dive-bar brawl that escalates from a remote-control squabble to a riot to a final shot of callous greed — Manney is willing to be ugly about gentrification, and the vivid soundscapes-and-compositions promise the animation matches the ambition. Don Hertzfeldt linework as a Safdie panic is a real reach.
Reviews
an intense animated film that depicts a violent night spiraling out of control with vivid soundscapes and compositions