THE LAST ROUND

Produced and Photographed by Joe Masucci
Directed by Dan Masucci
Written by Peter Hanson, Joe and Dan Masucci
Edited by Joe and Dan Masucci

Jack - Dan Massuci
Ned - Michael F. Hayes
Vance - Brian Kohn
Paul - Rich Lounello
Luke - Thomas Adams
Percy - Pierre Franklin Radimak
Mitchell - William B. Davis

A round table sits in an empty room with only a small wooden box in the center. One by one, they arrive at the secluded cabin to take their seat at the table.

Jack, a car salesman who lost his job and his family.

Ned, a recent widower who just found out he's dying of cancer just like his wife.

Vance, a racecar driver who lives his lives his life as fast as he drives.

Paul, a real estate mogul who lives for high stakes thrills.

Luke, a rape victim whose father disowns him for being "less than a man."

Percy, a man so alone that he doesn't know how to interact when contact is offered.

The rules are simple; one spin, six pulls. Someone dies.

If this sounds familiar, it's because many of these men sat at this table before in a short film of the same title. The Massuci Brothers, Dan and Joe, have expanded their fantastic short into a feature. Some of the material has changed, mostly characters and background information, but the heart of the movie is the same - men at the end of their ropes, men with nothing to loose, have come to test their salt.

The short film version of THE LAST ROUND was a digital masterpiece of tension. The feature length version ups the ante with raw emotion as we get a better idea of what brought these men to the table. Most of them are sinking in the black tar pits of despair; others are on the road to self-destruction. These are places most of us have been to, and some of us have even considered ending our lives on our own terms. For me it was when I found out at the age of 31 that I had prostate issues, and within days I found out exactly how dishonest and unfaithful my fiancee truly was. At the worst point in my life I would have swapped places with Ned, Luke, Paul, or Percy without so much as a second thought.

At one point in the movie, Ned says that he came to play the game out of fear, "fear of playing the hand he'd been dealt." That makes sense. Like the old adage, which is repeated in the movie, "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger." We learn and grow from life's trials, but sometimes we're blinded by our insecurities and can't see past the problem to find the solution, or perhaps a resolution.

That being said, I don't necessarily agree with everyone's reasons for being at the table, but I understand them. Of the six, the only ones justified are Ned and Percy. Christian society has banded suicide a sin, but in other cultures it's considered an honorable end. Ned's days are numbered and death with dignity should be an option that he's earned. Percy, whose previous incarnation has been combined with Jack to flesh out Jack's backstory, is now a man so distraught with his inability to find a place in society that he no longer has one. At this stage in his life he's set in his ways and any change in his personality would take years to bring about and just prolong his inner hell.

As I typed that last paragraph I realized that I just judged those six men. It was the judgment of others that forced them to test themselves, to question the validity of their existence. I'm wondering just how many people I've passed judgment on over the years. Did any of them drown in a sea of depression? Did any of them reach the end of their rope? Perhaps I was so wrapped up in my own issues that I've failed to help some of them stay afloat. The universe doesn't revolve around me, but right now it's hard for me not to apply this movie to my own life. The movie stuck a cord, it touched me on a level films rarely do.

Just as they did with the short version of THE LAST ROUND, the Masucci Brothers have created a movie of such profound emotional weight and intellectual depth that viewers question their own place in the universe. As we good enough? Are we able to face our own demons? Could we pull the trigger? Should we pull the trigger? Those are questions that only we can answer with a bit of soul searching, but THE LAST ROUND is that rare movie possessing the ability to raise those questions.

The self-distributed dvd screener contained no features to review.

Fountainhead Pictures
The Last Round

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