‘The Last Son’ With Sam Worthington & Machine Gun Kelly Is An Unrelentingly Grim Western [Review]

A brooding Western in search of a jolt of energy, Tim Sutton’s “The Last Son” is a morose slog through the American West, as Sam Worthington’s Issac Lemay hunts down his kin in an effort to stave off an Ingenious prophecy that he will be killed by one of them. Apparently not understanding the difference between prophecy and prediction — a difference that a Native woman, ironically enough, has to spell out for him — he roams through towns, hunting down every child that he fathered, which, given his propensity for prostitutes, is a surprising amount. Grim to an extreme, “The Last Son” is all menacing actors, desolate locales, and, unfortunately, comical self-seriousness. Despite a pretty stacked cast — Colson Baker (i.e., Machine Gun Kelly), Heather Graham, and Thomas Jane — the film is too interested in creating a mood instead of actually giving anyone any depth. 

The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2022

Written by Greg Johnson and inexplicably split into chapters — because that’s what serious works of art do, I suppose  — Worthington begins the film by tracking down Heather Graham’s Anna and her children. After killing one, he realizes that she actually gave birth to twins, setting him on a collision course with Baker’s Cal. Equaling Lemay’s terribleness, we are introduced to Cal as he guns down an entire Army company with a Gatling gun — which, of course, comes back in the violent finale. Both protagonists are essentially terrible people, making it hard to root for anyone as Lemay and Cal circle around each other before their violent showdown. Also figuring into this mix is Emily Marie Palmer’s Megan, another one of Cal’s children that he tries to hunt down. 

Worthington has always been a hit-or-miss performer, but Sutton wisely understands this and essentially reduces his performance, and character by extension, to a series of grunts of whispers, as he kills everyone in sight and, those who manage to survive shriek that he’s the devil (in case you didn’t already understand the subtext). Unlike Worthington, however, Baker can be an engaging performer with the right material (see “Roadies”). Here, however, he mirrors the schematic design of the script and the film’s pretentiousness, limiting his range to variations of blank stares. Graham is, also, underutilized — asked to play a prostitute with little-to-no depth. If there’s an MVP, it’s probably Palmer, who hovers on the periphery of the film after her initial confrontation with Lemay before, essentially, stealing the film as it limps towards its violently dull finale. Unmentioned is Jane, a performer who is always welcome, but also almost purposeless in this film, as his sheriff Solomon exists as a foil to Lemay and someone who never stands a chance in the middle of the showdown between father and son. 

Johnson and Sutton interestingly tease out some ideas — including an odd Oedipal relationship between Cal and Anna — but never really sees these thematic strands through, instead favoring a series of disconnected scenes that never add up. Whatever they are trying to say about fathers and sons, daughters, or even the Western as a genre is completely lost in Worthington’s grunts and Baker’s pensive stares. 

Like his feature “Donnybrook”  — another unrelentingly dark film, but at least strikingly engaging — “The Last Son” sags under the weight of its ambitions. But at least it looks beautiful and drab, with the cinematography by David Gallego being a standout feature. The same, however, cannot be said for Phil Mossman’s dark piano score, which seems to consist of repeating the same menacing notes over and over again until we get the idea — this movie is important. 

There are no heroes within “The Last Son,” but, perhaps even worse, there aren’t any real characters either, as each performer is asked to play some variation of a western archetype. Brooding, but often purposeless, Sutton is definitely a director to watch and sure can create stark, desolate moods. If only he could lighten up every once in a while. [C-]