film festivals | The Last Movie Guy

Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987): Minimalism and Humanism

The idea is simple, naïve, and modest, yet it carries a devastating force that confronts us categorically. Where Is the Friend’s House? by Abbas Kiarostami approaches the viewer gently, but once it draws you in, its message becomes overwhelming. Through the eyes of a child facing what may seem like a trivial moral conflict, Kiarostami constructs a complex essay on life, moral responsibility, childhood versus the adult world, and the inevitability of constant change.

Et Maintenant? (2025): A Reflection on Life and Adversity

Posted on March 13 by Hugo Pagan Soto

Cinema has always imitated life, and it finds inspiration for the stories that fill the big screen in those ordinary lives. Et Maintenant? (2025) is another example that supports that idea. Written and directed by Jocelyn Forgues, the film opened the 2026 edition of the Ottawa International Film Festival. With this work, the director offers a reflection on life through adversity, drawing inspiration from his own experience.

Perfect Days (2023): The Poetry of Ordinary Life

Posted on February 27 by Hugo Pagan Soto

Wim Wenders has a special gift for capturing the human soul in images. Perfect Days (2023) is a visual poem that confirms the German director’s unique ability to explore the depths of the human spirit. From the ordinary, he constructs a story that transcends the triviality of endless repetitive days. He paints pauses and silences with eloquence, creating a mirror in which we see our own reflection and are compelled to reflect deeply.

Safety Last! (1923): An Eternal Classic

Posted on February 20 by Hugo Pagan Soto

Even if you are not a cinema lover, you have surely seen at some point in your life the image of a man hanging from a clock high up on a building. That man is Harold Lloyd, and the image comes from the film Safety Last! (1923). This is one of the most important films in cinema history, one that forever changed the rules of the game. Alongside Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, Lloyd’s figure is one of the most representative of Hollywood’s silent era.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (2025): The AI Apocalypse

Posted on February 18 by Hugo Pagan Soto

If we mix Terminator 2 (1991) with Groundhog Day (1993) and 12 Monkeys (1995), the result would surely be something like Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (2025). Director Gore Verbinski borrows the Terminator’s mission, the time-loop repetition of Groundhog Day, and the fatalism of 12 Monkeys to craft a sharp satire with a voice of its own. The peculiarity suggested by the title feels like a warning to the viewer who dares to venture into this film. Verbinski opts for a discourse that unsettles, both because of the truths it exposes and the way it delivers them.