The latest directorial effort by Charlie Kaufman, long awaited since his last film was released in 2016, leaves much to be desired -- like almost everything you want from a movie. Unless you want depression, fear, anxiety and bad dreams, all of which I'm Thinking of Ending Things delivers in large quantities. Of course, those are Kaufman trademarks, but in his other movies there's at least been a plot we can follow and lots of humor, albeit dark but humor nonetheless. None of that can be found in this one.
The story, as it turns out, isn't really one you can follow since it's all in someone's head, not sure whose. We start out thinking it's about a young man, Jake, driving his new girlfriend (in a snowstorm) to meet his parents at their farm in rural Oklahoma. The parents (Toni Colette, David Thewlis) turn out to be totally nuts: "creepy" does not come close to describing their odd behavior. For starters, they both keep getting older and then younger again and then way older again every time they leave the room, sometimes returning with different clothes, worse hair and much saggier skin.
The other main character is an old janitor (Guy Boyd) at the local high school. We never learn who the heck he is or why we see him wandering the halls of the school, pushing a mop. But he shows up quite often and you get the idea he is VERY IMPORTANT to the story. Sadly, only Charlie Kaufman knows why.
But the film is not about all that. Really, it's about death and dying and the horrors of aging and why don't we just kill ourselves right now? What's the point of living since we all end up like pigs rotting from maggots eating our internal organs? In fact, watching this movie I started thinking of ending things just to avoid the terrible fate awaiting me, should I continue on the path of life towards the inevitable crumbling of my body and dissembling of my mind. Youth is all that matters to Charlie Kaufman, and I assume to the author of the book of the same title from which this film was adapted.
If you enjoyed The Shining you will love this movie, although there's no charming Jack Nicholson to entertain you. Instead Jake is played by Jesse Plemons, a boring, annoying and unattractive actor who obviously was cast to play the boring, annoying and unattractive loser who looks half-asleep for most of the two hours and 14 minutes (but who's counting.) On the bright side, the young woman (Jessie Buckley), whose name (as well as her wardrobe) keeps changing during the course of this weird evening, is a fabulous, adorable, fun-to-watch Irish actress who gives an Oscar-worthy performance you might want to see twice. I loved her!
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| Actress Toni Colette plays a lunatic, quite convincingly. |
The story, as it turns out, isn't really one you can follow since it's all in someone's head, not sure whose. We start out thinking it's about a young man, Jake, driving his new girlfriend (in a snowstorm) to meet his parents at their farm in rural Oklahoma. The parents (Toni Colette, David Thewlis) turn out to be totally nuts: "creepy" does not come close to describing their odd behavior. For starters, they both keep getting older and then younger again and then way older again every time they leave the room, sometimes returning with different clothes, worse hair and much saggier skin.
The other main character is an old janitor (Guy Boyd) at the local high school. We never learn who the heck he is or why we see him wandering the halls of the school, pushing a mop. But he shows up quite often and you get the idea he is VERY IMPORTANT to the story. Sadly, only Charlie Kaufman knows why.
But the film is not about all that. Really, it's about death and dying and the horrors of aging and why don't we just kill ourselves right now? What's the point of living since we all end up like pigs rotting from maggots eating our internal organs? In fact, watching this movie I started thinking of ending things just to avoid the terrible fate awaiting me, should I continue on the path of life towards the inevitable crumbling of my body and dissembling of my mind. Youth is all that matters to Charlie Kaufman, and I assume to the author of the book of the same title from which this film was adapted.
If you enjoyed The Shining you will love this movie, although there's no charming Jack Nicholson to entertain you. Instead Jake is played by Jesse Plemons, a boring, annoying and unattractive actor who obviously was cast to play the boring, annoying and unattractive loser who looks half-asleep for most of the two hours and 14 minutes (but who's counting.) On the bright side, the young woman (Jessie Buckley), whose name (as well as her wardrobe) keeps changing during the course of this weird evening, is a fabulous, adorable, fun-to-watch Irish actress who gives an Oscar-worthy performance you might want to see twice. I loved her!
I definitely want to see this one. I like Charlie Kaufmann. We can compare notes. "Synecdoche, New York" may be my favorite. Does tha bode well for this latest movie?
ReplyDeleteSynechdoche is one of my favorite movies of all time!
DeleteI watched Paper Towns last night lol
ReplyDelete