Ever Since The World Ended. Ever Since The World Ended. That's the movie I went to see tonight and for the life of me, every time someone asked me what movie I was seeing, I had to pull out the little printed receipt because I COULD not remember! Ever Since The World Ended, playing at my favorite new independent theater ... let me find the name ... The Pioneer. I went and bought an annual membership; it pays for itself after six movies, plus there are various other freebies that sound kinda up my alley. First of all, they have a little poster - like one of those Emergency Procedure posters you'd see at a place of employment - that tells you the proper steps in avoiding a Zombie Attack. They play these totally obscure movies, some of them are super old, some are these little art flicks that most of the country will never hear about. "Ever Since The World Ended" is probably one of those movies.
Like I alluded to before, it's a fictional movie portraying itself as this documentary, ten years after a worldwide plague has wiped out most of civilization. Set in San Francisco, where but 186 people now live, these two filmmakers - with the help of a technically savvy guy who hooks them up with the proper battery power - talk to some of the survivors about their experiences. Like any good documentary, there's a narrative you can follow throughout.
Consider me an optimist, but I LIKE these End Of The World type movies. Even though it was only on ABC and it was 97 hours long, I enjoyed Stephen King's miniseries "The Stand." Obviously, the book - with all the naughty curse words and sexual content - is better than the PG-13 televised version, but I find stories like these compelling. Sometimes people go the zombie route, like on 28 Days Later, and it's just as effective. People always say they like going to the movies because it's good Escapism from the drudgery of their real lives. Well, if you're going to escape YOUR life, what better than to immerse yourself in this Brave New World where people have to learn how to hunt and scavenge and rebuild some semblance of a society?
What I enjoyed about this movie is the fact that, it's not like one of those nuclear holocaust type movies where the survivors band together and try to start up some new government or something. You know, this Lord of the Flies bullshit where someone declares himself the Leader and someone else gets all jealous and kills the leader or starts up his own faction or some shit. The people in this movie pretty much go on living their own lives, only meeting together to discuss one member of the community who poses a threat to the rest of them and what to do about him. Other than that, it's business as usual. One guy gathers the teenagers in a building and teaches them foreign languages and history. A woman has a home where she's taken in random younger women and children as sort of a safe-haven. Yet others simply live quiet lives on their own.
Travel doesn't come easy, as it's ten years later and I'm sure there's no more gas for automobiles. Many have yet to leave San Francisco in the last decade for that reason and the fact that there are crazies in the outskirts running around with guns and dementia.
This movie was only 76 minutes long, but I could've sat there listening to everyone for three hours. I was completely fascinated by this movie and how real the interviewees appeared. There was a number of places at the end where it could've stopped and been more impactful, but other than that, I'm Thumbing Up this movie all over the place. If anyone has a chance to rent it, check out "Ever Since The World Ended."