Kill Me Later
Kill Me Later is a 2001 film directed by Dana Lustig and starring Selma Blair and Max Beesley; it also features Brendan Fehr and Keegan Connor Tracy.
| Kill Me Later | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Dana Lustig |
| Produced by | Dana Lustig Ram Bergman Carole Curb Nemoy |
| Written by | Dana Lustig Annette Goliti Gutierrez |
| Starring | Selma Blair Max Beesley Brendan Fehr Keegan Connor Tracy |
| Music by | Tal Bergman |
| Cinematography | David Ferrara |
| Edited by | Gabriel Wrye |
Release date | September 14, 2001 |
Running time | 89 min. |
| Country | United States |
Synopsis
Blair plays Shawn, a suicidal loan officer at a bank. She is having an affair with the bank vice-president, who is married. After discovering that his wife is pregnant, she goes to the roof to kill herself. In the meantime bank robbers hijack an armored car. When the police arrive to stop Shawn from jumping, one of the bank robbers (Thompson) accidentally gets caught. The cops thwart the robbery, but one of the robbers, Charlie Anders (Beesley), takes Shawn hostage at gunpoint. They make a deal: she will help him escape if he promises to kill her afterwards. The bank vice-president, a collaborator in the robbery, is arrested.
The film begins at the moment when Shawn and Charlie jump into the water, then jumps back to 24 hours earlier. In the scenes when Charlie and Shawn are hiding out near his boat, you can see the clock moving backwards.
Subplots
Two detectives, young Agent Reed, played by Lochlyn Munro, and the older Agent McGinley, played by O'Neal Compton, are trying to solve the case. McGinley's wife keeps calling to nag. Reed is knowledgeable about suicide because his sister killed herself.
Two robbers: young Billy, played by Brendan Fehr, and the older Jason Thompson, played by Tom Heaton. Thompson is expecting to die, either from a life of debauchery or a bad prostate. Thompson is the one that tells the police there was an inside man.
End scene
Shawn and Charlie are seen on a beach in Mexico, living the dream that Charlie told Shawn about previously during the boat scene.
Production
A large number of filter effects, shutter effects, and jump cuts are used to make long dialogue scenes (particularly between the two cops and between the two lovers) more visually interesting. The audio itself on both is done as a single long take.
Dana Lustig, the director, makes an on screen appearance as Shawn's stepmother.
It was filmed in Canada.
Soundtrack
Kill Me Later's opening theme was the dream pop song "The Old Fashioned Way" by the New York-based band Luna.
| No. | Title | Artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Old Fashioned Way" | Luna | |
| 2. | "Havin' a Bad Day" | Blue Flannel | |
| 3. | "House is Falling" | The Geraldine Fibbers | |
| 4. | "Eilat" | Danny Lerman | |
| 5. | "She's Still in Dallas" | Hal Ketchum | |
| 6. | "For Now You're Just a Dream" | Danny Lerman | |
| 7. | "Yeghish Manoukian" | Following the Banks of the Arax River | |
| 8. | "Fiction" | Yve Adam | |
| 9. | "Streets" | Camillia | |
| 10. | "Growing A Way" | Remo | |
| 11. | "Shady" | Paul Christian Gordon |
In 2005 the German Industrial metal band Rammstein released Spring. Although the song did not have a promotional music video, an unofficial version which features scenes from the film Kill Me Later, became one of the most watched videos of the band on the internet.