![]() Anyway: I’m Thinking of Ending Things tips its hand too early. ZING! OK, I’m sorry, back to the task at hand. Let’s start at the beginning, which makes sense, because we are living in a thoroughly linear world and not Christopher Nolan’s underwhelming Tenet. We’ll get into SPOILERS here, and feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments. So no, this is not a review of I’m Thinking of Ending Things, but more a sort of exploration into why it didn’t work for me. And that is the story of how I was assigned to review Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things, and I’ve been struggling to come up with a reaction for two weeks now, and … I’ve got nothing. It only becomes a problem when, you know, it’s your job to have opinions on things, but then you have no opinions about the thing you have been assigned to have opinions on. Joker: Not for me! Movies about ex-military guys finding their redemption in saving brown children: NOT. Some pieces of media just exist there, floating in the ether, and you can describe them as, “Oh, yeah, that’s not for me.” All of Netflix’s holiday romances: Not for me. ![]() Not everything has the same impact for everyone. It probably meant a lot to the people who produced it, who devoted time to creating it and crafting it, and more power to them. ![]() Some of it you love, some of it you hate, and most of it is fine. The nature of being a film and TV critic is that you watch so much stuff. That second-hand anxiety as a viewer skyrockets when their first conversation hits a dead end.SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR THE FILM I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS Ever drove down from Park City to Salt Lake City in the dead of night during a blizzard? Mix that dreadful setting with the philosophical - and sometimes awkward - conversations between this disjointed couple whose relationship is on its last leg, and you get the most stressful film experience of the year, which perfectly matches our current social and political climate. ![]() As the leads drive to and from the house, they’re in the midst of a raging blizzard in the dark, which is just as stressful as it sounds. Aside from the shot composition, the camerawork often plays around with the vacant spaces to create an offbeat sense of dread in a crippling “breaking all sense of reality” way. The intricate detailing that went into the set design also adds another layer to the mystery. Most of the shot composition features the characters with some sort of physical distance between each other in order to complement their emotional distance. Kaufman constantly fucks with you as effectively as the novel does. Sometimes you can’t even tell whose perspective you’re watching the film from. At first glance, you might not be able to grasp the entire puzzle. It’s like watching a visual puzzle play out and as each piece is slowly put together, you get a few hints about what the larger picture is. With the framework and set designs - everything from the interior of Jake’s car to his parents’ house - Kaufman overwhelms you with anxiety. From an atmospheric perspective, he certainly nails it. This is Charlie Kaufman™ elevated horror. While most of Kaufman’s prior works are straightforward in storytelling, this one requires the activation of a few brain cells.Įnding Things feels like it's Kaufman’s response to the term “elevated horror” and his attempt at dipping his toes into the pool. It’s a straight-up madhouse that will make you mutter, “What the fuck?” ever so often. All of these things are present in Ending Things, but they’re masked by psychological horror. He incorporates dialogue where characters psychoanalyze themselves and the situation they’re in, puts his characters through uncomfortable emotional isolation that his viewers can resonate with, and provides thought-provoking commentary on the futility of mortality. If you’ve seen any of Kaufman’s previous works, you know that nothing is what it seems. He wrote Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, Adaptation, and Anomalisa, to name a few. As simple as that premise may seem, you have to remember you’re watching a Charlie Kaufman movie.
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