The Last Five Years

The Last Five Years (2014) is a musical drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Richard LaGravenese and adapted from Jason Robert Brown's celebrated Off-Broadway show. Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan carry almost the entire film between them, with the story told almost entirely through song.

The structure is the point. Jamie, a young novelist, narrates the relationship chronologically — from falling in love to falling apart. Cathy, a struggling actress, moves in reverse — from the wreckage back to the beginning. Their timelines intersect only once, at their wedding, right in the middle of the film. Two honest accounts of the same five years, and they barely line up.

Kendrick is at her best in the scenes where Cathy sits through yet another audition while Jamie's career takes off without effort. The film is intimate almost to austerity — two people, New York, and Brown's score, which does the work that dialogue would do in any other movie. If you can handle an ending you already see coming from the first scene, it earns it. Stream The Last Five Years online on iFILM.