4:44 Last Day on Earth 2012

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: This is pretty standard not-with-a-bang-but-with-a-whimper-punctuated-by-an-occasional-blowup stuff. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Your last day - or, as it happens, the whole planet's last day - will be just like every other one. Mr. Ferrara makes this point with ingenuity and characteristic thrift by using found news footage to provide images of apocalypse. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The film lacks any serious attempt to grapple with mortality. Read more

Scott Bowles, USA Today: Ferrara doesn't give his protagonists room to do much beyond have arguments and sex (though the intimacy is shot well). Read more

Sam Adams, AV Club: The mechanics of the pending cataclysm don't interest Ferrera so much as the emotional stakes: How do people act when there's no future left? Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Ferrara's thin idea for a movie - life goes on, even when it's about to stop - would have been a lot better had he given his characters more to do. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: Ferrara movingly celebrates connection, cooking life down to just its barest essence: a man, a woman and a need. Read more

Scott Tobias, NPR: Rehashing old arguments in the hours before certain death is a tedious waste of time - theirs, and ours. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Dafoe, with his angular, ever-watchable Edvard Munch features, plays well off the impish Leigh, but sadly, they have little to do besides a "Last Tango at Armageddon" riff, albeit with a genuinely moving finale. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: If the end of the world was just hours away, would New Yorkers still be able to get takeout? Yes, if Abel Ferrara's mind-bending "4:44 Last Day on Earth'' is any indication. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: Though it gains traction toward the end, viewers may finally feel puzzled or indifferent. You expect a bit more from the end of the world. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: It's both chamber drama and experimental found-footage film, relying heavily on appropriated media to provide context and subtext to its disaster fiction. Read more