The Last Lions (2011) poster
2011 · documentary

The Last Lions

Directed by Dereck Joubert1h 28m2011
ElsewhereIMDb8.24kRT86%Metacritic69
  • sombre
  • measured
Movie DNA

Sombre, measured, measured documentary, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

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In Botswana's Okavango Delta, an ostracized lioness and her two cubs must fight alone to survive - overcoming all manner of hazards. Their only defense is to escape to Duba Island -- and with that, an unknown future. The setting for this epic tale is one of the last regions where lions can live in the wild. Faced with dwindling land and increasing pressure from hunting, lions - like our lone lioness and her cubs - are approaching the brink of extinction.

Our read · The Last Lions (2011) reads as a sombre, measured, grounded documentary entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of The Last Lions

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What watching it is actually like.

You want an intense wildlife doc following one lioness's desperate fight to save her cubs.

ends bittersweetit leaves you shakena rollercoastergrips by minute 5attention 4/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upanimal harm

Skip it tonightSkip if graphic animal deaths, predation and nature's brutality will upset you.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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