The World's End(2013)

A classmate planted the phrase, "I didn't believe the ending," in my head when talking about this movie. That's the phrase that first came to me when the climax eventually arrived. It just didn't seem plausible for me that an all-powerful alien race was that convinced by the drunken rants of three middle-aged British men to forgo their invasion goals and bring about the technology apocalypse.

Here's why that ultimately doesn't matter to me. Edgar Wright knows how to stage exciting comedies and The World's End made me laugh (Gary's confidence in the beginning, the boys arguing over the term robot, Martin Freeman with a football head, and so on and so forth.) But more importantly, it showed me what a great comedy with a clear point of view looks like. Specifically, it made me think not just about the end of the world, but about nostalgia's dark side and the things people put in their way to numb what they don't like in their present. Check out Simon Pegg's performance, which shows some powerfully realistic pathos behind the funny screw-up that Gary is.