Directed by: Benjamin Mullinkosson
Distributed by: MUBI
Written by Michael Clawson
60/100
Benjamin Mullinkosson’s documentary “The Last Year of Darkness” offers fleeting glimpses into Chinese club culture, and builds the throbbing energy of a dance club into its very form. Its opening minutes show various young people preparing for a night out: a handsome blonde DJ from Russia rapidly flips through his vinyl collection for what to play that night, a drag performer dons a wedding dress, wig, and elaborate makeup, and the red neon lights of a small club called “Funky Town” flicker to life. Swift, lively editing and mobile camerawork throughout this sequence suggests the giddy anticipation of these youth as they await the euphoric thrill of another night dancing in each other’s company. After being swept up in the rush of this intro, I was let down by the documentary’s subsequent lack of focus.
A hole-in-the-wall underground club in Chengdu, “Funky Town” is presented as a vital community space for a sub-culture of the city’s youth, and particularly queer youth. But the documentary struggles to balance its interest in the club as an institution with its curiosity about specific “Funky Town” regulars. Along with the DJ and drag performer shown at the film’s outset, Mullinkosson also spends time with a young woman battling suicidal thoughts and a handful of young men barely making their rent as they aspire to be DJs. Following his subjects through the nighttime and into the cold light of day creates contrast between the warmth offered by “Funky Town” and the harsher realities of city life, but it leaves both sides of the film feeling under-explored. There’s not enough attention to “Funky Town” as a physical space for a portrait of it to fully emerge, and Mullinkosson flits too hurriedly between subjects to delve deep into any one young person’s life.
There are touching moments. The Russian DJ’s kindness is disarming in a scene where he ensures that a drunk partier makes it home safely, accompanying the partier all the way to his apartment door. Mullinkosson also demonstrates a perceptive sense for camera placement and movement, naturally shifting between gorgeous establishing shots of the city skyline and close-ups of his subjects in their personal spaces. But when “Funky Town” is shown being razed to the ground in the film’s final moments, a fate that’s foretold by the urban transformation shown throughout the film, the sense of what’s just been lost feels incomplete.
“The Last Year of Darkness” Trailer
Michael Clawson is a member of the Seattle Film Critic Society you can follow his passion for film on Letterboxd.