Late Shift (Petra Biondina Volpe, 2025)
By the close of that opening sequence the movie had me in its grip: uniforms being lined up on a conveyor amidst the hollow din of its mechanical contraptions, the nurses making obligatory small talk as they change into gear, finally leading up to that hasty passing of the baton wherein the nurses from the previous shift relay the personal and medical details of the patients on the floor. After this the movie doesn’t open up to the oft represented rush of the ER but instead steps into the quiet but escalating dread of an understaffed late shift.
The movie follows a single nurse, Floria, doing her rounds, or rather, struggling to get through one round, as she must attend to patients of every ilk ranging from a rather pleasant but terminally ill woman to an entitled man grumbling about the lack of good service.
Some excellent face acting here and for most of the run time the handheld camera squares in on floria as she wears a permanent smile that barely conceals a clenched jaw and gritted teeth. Of course she isn’t without feeling and in fact does care for her patients. But the job is the job and that relies on her brain weighing every act of care against the time it takes.
I reckoned I was in for a nervy social realist drama much like two days one night or full time, both of which had wrung me out with a vicarious panic attack. And the first half of this delivers.
While the two other films play out against the backdrop of urban and suburban sprawls this one unravels within the steel and glass and clean lines of a first world hospital. It’s a space that affords little room for big emotions while at the same time being one where a single misstep could have fatal consequences. The contrast is supposed heighten the dread.
But that climax in the final third only serves to deflate the pressure and retroactively highlights the slightly overwritten parts of this fare. The rest of the last act plods along slowly, giving every nurse and patient a moment in the spotlight as though they needed redemption. The final shot, a poetic flourish, feels odd as it leaves viewers with a more romantic view of the affair as opposed to eliciting unease and anger at a system that is designed to fail.
It’s a frustrating end to what could’ve been a tightly coiled realist thriller.
If you’re going for something melodramatic, look no further than HBOs The Pitt, a show that does lather on the drama but keeps up that frenetic pace, builds great characters and possesses some deft writing. Every other medical drama pales in comparison.