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The "Beats" are back. Ever "cool", ever "hip", this poignant, humorous film will introduce today's youth market to the inner circle of the American Icons of "the Beat Generation" - Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs and Gregory Corso. "The Last Beat" follows Corso, the most colorful of them. After the death of Allen Ginsberg, his best friend, Corso goes "On the Road" to rediscover himself as the "Last Beat." A classic "road movie" is crafted from outstanding documentary work, combined with pacing and entertainment value from the filmmaker's experiences as a "Miami Vice" contributor and "Crime Story" co-creator (NBC and Michael Mann) In his "road movie", Corso travels from France, to Italy, to Greece, retracing the early days of "The Beats." In high humor he dramatizes how they changed American society, paving the way for youth culture, the sexual revolution and even hip-hop. In an "on the road" discovery, the filmmaker found Corso's Italian mother who abandoned him as a baby. They are reunited on film. Corso also amazes by visiting prison inmates at Clinton Prison, where at age 17 he was encouraged by Italian mafia prisoners to educate himself. (He ended up at Harvard later.) After his European odyssey, a revitalized Corso returns to Greenwich Village to work again... Then, in ultimate irony, Corso faces his own mortality with humor and pluck, comforted by Ethan Hawke, Patti Smith and his newfound mother, Michelina.—Gordon Hue imdb.com