There's something dementedly glorious about Lauren Karaman in writer/director Zilong Zee's 14-minute psychological thriller The Last Act. 

Karaman is Jacqueline, a struggling New York City musical theater actress with just enough talent to get into the audtion but not quite enough to actually be invited to stay in the room. The New York City she lives in is both fiercely seductive and ratty, somewhat literally, as her daytime hours are filled with her work as a barista and the rest of her time seems to find her hunched over the laptop looking for auditions and subsequently going into those audition greeted by sneering faces and skeptical souls. 

At times, The Last Act feels like Fame when that fame is never quite achived. After enduring a seemingly endless stream of rejections, Jacqueline struggles not just with those rejections but also a slew of comments about her oversized body. When one casting director, Andrew (Al Pagano), is particularly cruel, Jacqueline fractured psyche really begins to show. 

While the film takes place over a relatively quick 14 minutes, Karaman gives us a Jacqueline with whom we identify as she bounces between idealizing and hopeful toward something decidedly less hopeful. We like her enough, especially early on, that the scenes with Pagano's Andrew are uncomfortable to watch and there's no question there's some societal commentary going on here even if it feels a bit too rushed to land with maximum impact. 

I'm not sure what it says about me, but I enjoyed watching Karaman's increasingly corrupted emotional state here, even her scene as a barista felt rather satisfying. As someone who was both a theater minor and who lives in a particularly unique body as a wheelchair user and paraplegic/double amputee, I found myself identifying with Jacqueline far more than I probably should. 

Adam Weinberg's lensing for the film amplifies the seductive nature of New York City, though it never lets go of the wonderful city's darker shadows. It helps us understand why Jacqueline stays even when we can't help but think those around her are giving her decent advice. Yet, there's more here and it's worth hanging out to see where Zee takes the story and where this ensemble ends up. Composer Mustafa Yazicioglu creates a score that beautifully complements the film's emotional rhythms. 

Pagano is also tremendous here, eerily so. It's a disturbingly fun performance that lights up the screen.

The Last Act isn't always a comfortable film to watch, though it's a compelling and engaging film that makes you want to watch it. It's one of those short films where you wish you had a bit more time with the story and its characters, though what Zee leaves on the screen lingers in your heart and mind long after the film's closing credits. 

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic