Product Details

• Actors: Ron Petronicolos, Mike Dolan, Patrick Orion Hoesterey, Merrick McMahon, Elizabeth Flesh
• Directors: Jeff London
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: WOLFE VIDEO
• DVD Release Date: June 10, 2008
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000F8O38M
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #177,551 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Last Year" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

LAST YEAR - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars heartfelt and heartrending, April 29, 2003

By 

M. FUSCO "yawnmower" (NEW YORK, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Year (DVD)

What a lovely discovery! This bittersweet little film by Jeff London
examines the lives of three young gay men at various stages of being
out, attending a 'Christian' college.

Hector (Merrick McMahon) has been outed, is being persecuted by the
Dean and his jock henchmen, and shunned by classmates. Alex (gentle and
winning Mike Dolan) is new at the school, though a senior, because his
father hopes the religious environment will cure him of 'a certain
young man' from home. Beautiful and troubled Paul (played perfectly by
Ron Petronicolos) is deep in the closet after being compromised in a
library restroom over the summer. He hides his homosexuality at first,
but soon tells his room-mate and best friend Robby (Patrick Hoesterey).
Robby is straight, and unpleasantly surprised, but quickly overcomes
his reservations because of his love for Paul.

The four boys become a little family and try to protect each other from
the violence, intolerance, hate, and hypocrisy that surrounds them.
Each character is lovingly drawn, and they all change in remarkable
ways. Alex falls in love with Paul and leads him towards the light of
self-realization and personal commitment. Hector, unfortunately, is not
so lucky. They are all watched over by St. Jude, who appears briefly in
one of the dearest moments in the film.

There are flaws and stretches of credulity in the story, but the
overwhelming sincerity and heartfelt nature of the writing and acting
negate such quibbles.

The outtakes are serendipitous, nicely edited and really funny --
happily so after the seriousness of the film. The interviews reveal the
actors to be just as sweet, supportive, humorous, and genuine as they
are on screen.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good, LOW-BUDGET, INDEPENDENT Film, September 9, 2004

By 

Soldier Boy "Warrior" (Iraq) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Year (DVD)

I thought this film was very good...for a low budget independent film. The acting was good overall, though hardly Oscar worthy. The lighting, sound, and video quality were ok. The film is about 3 gay men who find themselves at a very conservative bible college. It deals with the repression, harassment, difficulties, and stresses that exist in such environments, especially when one is coming to terms with being gay. It also explores the friendship, loyalty, happiness, hope, joys, love, and beauty that can develop even in the harshest of places. People considering buying this film should understand that this is a low budget, independent film. It should not be compared with films that have much, much bigger budgets and a lot more resources but instead should be judged for what the actors, writers, directors, and other crewmembers managed to accomplish with the resources at their disposal. I think they did a very good job!

I don't understand a lot of the harsh criticism about this film. I certainly don't believe the "review" that claimed that the owner of a small video chain was removing this video from all his stores because of all the complaints. This is pure bunk!!! I believe that there is more to these types of reviews than meets the eye. Perhaps the "critics" of this film object to the context of this film and the message it sends out. Believe it or not, things like what happened in this film DO happen. I am not a bible-thumping Christian nor am I an atheist. I have no agenda. I'm just a regular guy who enjoys good movies, even low budget ones!!!

I bought this film despite some misgivings. I really believed a lot of the bad stuff that had been written about this film, but decided that it would be, at best, good for a good laugh. Throughout the film, I kept waiting for all of the "bad and horrible" acting, directing, sound and light quality that some "reviewers" said were in this film but none of it ever showed up. To be fair, this film was not perfect. It DID have some major flaws and stuff, but hey, how many "thumbs up" Hollywood films do as well??? And a lot of these bad Hollywood films have huge budgets. This film had a small budget - I can't stress this enough!!!

Generally speaking, I think that the people involved in this film, from the director to the actors to the writers, all did a very good job. This is why I give this film 4 outta 5 stars. I recommend this film. Check it out!!!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A story that needed to be told!, May 24, 2005

By 

Fabiano Fabris "[Fab]" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Last Year (DVD)

From a technical viewpoint, this must rank as one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The "feel" was like that of a soap opera, the sound poor, and script, well... let's not go there.

However, the story itself is powerful and important. At last, someone had the guts to show the bigotry, hypocrisy and outright hate of the religious right in America, which cherry-picks from the bible in order to justify homophobia, while ignoring other equally important messages in the bible. The fact that their bile can result in innocent loss of life is immaterial to them.

From this point of view, "The Last Year" outclasses 90% of all other movies, including so-called "blockbusters", which are generally devoid of any real substance or meaning. So... well done, and thanks for having made this film!