The Last Race

Michael Dweck’s elegiac but awkward documentary begins with some truly niche background information: a history of auto racing on Long Island, NY. Among other things, viewers learn that during the sport’s peak popularity there, an almost unimaginable 40 racetracks did brisk business. But now Long Island is down to one, Riverhead Raceway, a longtime mom-and-pop operation that has seen better days. Dweck has several journalistic goals in The Last Race, including championing the many eccentrics who either participate in stock car racing at Riverhead or frequent the stands as paying fans. (In the film’s strangest and most disconcerting scene, Dweck films one of the drivers at his day job destroying beehives; we watch as poisoned bees crawl on the ground in their final moments.) Also featured here are the track’s owners, Jim and Barbara Cromarty, seen in their office trailer and while Jim announces races from a booth. While a lot of racing footage is featured, Dweck spoils these scenes with Mozart’s "Requiem" on the score, a pretentious choice that amounts to overkill regarding Riverhead’s decline. While there are amusing and interesting moments of frayed glory here, this is ultimately a scattershot documentary. Optional. (T. Keogh)