The end is nigh…again. After a multiple-recipient text message goes literally viral, the nation’s power grid shuts down and chaos reigns. But in Denis Hennelly’s exceptionally irritating apocalypse dramedy, the end of days is just a backdrop for more important matters—namely the tense reunion of a group of former friends at the off-the-grid residence of societal dropouts James (Adrian Grenier) and Lily (Kerry Bishé).
It’s The Big Chill meets The Walking Dead, minus the zombies but with just as much interpersonal bickering and a gory bullet-to-the-head shot for good measure. For most of the running time, we’re stuck watching unappealing characters—the Religious Nut, the Misanthrope, the Suicidal One, etc.—talk through their own personal catastrophes, because humanity, man, it endures against all odds.
Only Gaby Hoffmann makes a lasting impression, as the thick-skinned pariah of the bunch. Somehow she’s able to give the ring of truth to even the hoariest of Hennelly and cowriter Sarah Adina Smith’s conceits (notably a rally-the-troops speech cribbed from founding father George Washington). The rest makes you long for Armageddon.
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