“The Last Shift” Hits Home Video Just in Time

Premiering at this year's Sundance Film Festival, The Last Shift was picked up by Sony. In a normal year, it would have been one of the most talked-about films of the summer. But of course this wasn't a normal year, and played in just a handful of theaters and drive-ins. But it will be available for home viewing just before the end of this awful year.

The film stars Richard Jenkins as Stanley, a cranky fast-food worker punching the clock for the last time. In his final time at Oscar's, he butts heads with his replacement Jevon (Shane Paul McGhie), a talented writer and button-pusher with a wildly different point of view than Stanley. The cast also includes Da'Vine Joy Randolph (Dolemite Is My Name), Allison Tolman (Season 1 of Fargo) and Ed O'Neill (who just wrapped the last episode of Modern Family earlier this year). This marks the feature debut of Andrew Cohn, who previously made documentaries, including a 30 for 30 episode, a Danny Brown concert, and won an Emmy for Medora, about a small-town basketball team.

The Last Shift will be available for digital rental on December 29. Fans can also pick it up on Blu-ray and DVD the same day.

About Kip Mooney

Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.