‘Last Days’ Review: ‘Fast & Furious’ Franchise Director Justin Lin’s Return To Indie Filmmaking Blends His Personal Drive With Studio Sensibility -Sundance Film Festival
Director Justin Lin was last at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002 with his breakout indie teen crime drama Better Luck Tomorrow. Twenty-three years later, he is back with yet another indie project, Last Days, and clearly hoping to rekindle the fire that got him attention in the first place. Since 2006’s Tokyo Drift, Lin has been the go-to guy for the Fast & Furious franchise with five of them, most recently Fast 9 in 2019, as well as the most recent big-screen film in another hugely popular franchise, 2016’s Star Trek: Beyond.
Now this veteran director, after a few stops and starts and financing woes, has managed to do a film on his own terms again. And the appeal of making it is obvious, not only because it focuses on a young Asian–American young man and his Chinese immigrant father, but because it definitely affords him the opportunity to tell a personal story on a big adventure scale.
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This is the true story of John Allen Chau (Sky Yang), a devoutly religious 26-year-old man from an immigrant Christian family and student at Oral Roberts University, who discovered his mission in life and set out on an impossible journey to convert an uncontacted and extremely primitive tribe of North Sentinel Island to Christianity in the fall of 2018. He kayaked in there on his own as the boat he contracted would only take him so far toward this perilous place. His body was spotted a day later, but it it never was found.
Chronicled in Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’s compelling 2023 NatGeo documentary The Mission, tracing the life of Chau and his final journey, Lin and screenwriter Ben Ripley instead relied on Alex Perry’s Outside magazine piece “The Last Days Of John Allen Chau” for their starting point and details. They used Chau’s extensive writings in his journal and Instagram videos to piece this story of just who he was: Dedicated young missionary? Religious zealot? Lost young man? All of the above?
Lin, with his large-canvas filmmaking experience, has chosen not to make this just an inward character study but also a surprisingly commercial adventure film that spans the globe, as Chau did, in search of excitement, as well as to find his true calling along the way. His college buddy Chandler (Toby Wallace) urges him to tell the world his story his way while still cautioning about the dangers, but ultimately he helps to facilitate his wanderings. Chau was part of a generation who was an open book on social media, so even though there is no pat ending of video of his final excursion, there is plenty leading up to it. His claim he was shot by a tribal arrow right into a life-saving Bible in his front shirt pocket is part of the lore, true or not. It is depicted here, as his various travels to exotic locales and more.
What is invented that wasn’t in the docu or the article, or any of his own writings, is the character of Meena (Radhika Apte), a female Indian police detective who, against the wishes of her boss Sonny (Naveen Andrews), gets wind of Chau’s plans and sets out on a heart-stopping effort to prevent him from what she is convinced will be certain death for the young man. Thus, we not only have his long and winding road to North Sentinel, we also have her story and her conflicts with the skeptical Sonny that Lin has added to the package. She serves as a voice of reason that didn’t exist, as far as we know, and who adds layers of suspense as to whether she can catch him in time. It is the least indie part of this take, a Hollywoodized story element that will either carry you along on this journey or make you question how much invention was really needed for a tale already pretty fascinating on its own.
The other aspect Lin and writer Ripley focus on is the relationship between father and son. Patrick (Ken Leung) joined the local Christian community and church in the hopes of fitting in as an immigrant in America. He was devastated when his son ditched medical school after being indoctrinated into his church and was inspired to become a missionary. There is a tremendous guilt factor as the realization of John’s dangerous path becomes too much to bear, even as his American wife suggests prayer groups in support of their son.
Ultimately, Last Days is for its filmmaker an interesting hybrid of everything his career at different points has been to this moment, a chance to pull off a true-life character study and blend it with elements of the kind of big-screen adventure that could make a perfect kind of summer release for the right distributor.
Cinematography by Oliver Bokelberg is first-rate, and the casting works well, beginning with Yang, who is completely convincing, exhibiting Chau’s wide-eyed enthusiasm and determination throughout. Leung is excellent as always, and Wallace has some nice moments as the Christian friend helping him when perhaps he shouldn’t. Marny Kennedy is excellent as a young woman he meets on his travels and starts a relationship that goes into unexpected places for her. Apte does what the script requires as the dogged cop on his trial, even as Andrews has a bit of a more one-note role.
If you need proof that Lin really has jumped into the indie realm to get this made, there are no fewer than 25 producing credits of one sort or another, including key producer credits for Lin, Clayton Townsend, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Eric Robinson, Salvador Gatdula and Andrew Schneider. Keanu Reeves is among the many executive producers involved.
Title: Last Days
Festival: Sundance (Premieres)
Sales agent: CAA
Director: Justin Lin
Screenplay: Ben Ripley
Cast: Sky Yang, Radhika Apte, Ken Leung, Toby Wallace, Marny Kennedy, Clair Price, Ciara Bravo, Naveen Andrew
Running time: 1 hr 59 mins
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