- Riley
- Sep 5, 2020
- 5 min read
photo courtesy of IMDb (2020)
Charlie Kaufman is back in the director's chair for the first time in four years since his Oscar nominated stop-motion animated masterpiece Anomalisa (2016). This one is back in live action and it was exactly the level of quality that I was expecting. It released through Netflix on September 4th.
Kaufman is one of my favorite people working in film today, and he's directed some of my favorite movies of all time. He was the screenwriter for the breakout hits Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), but became a full time writer/director for my favorite film of all time, Synecdoche, New York (2008). His track record is impeccable so I had high hopes for his newest work. He cast Jesse Plemons, who you may recognize from his excellent work on Breaking Bad, and Jessie Buckley as his two leads.
I'm Thinking of Ending Things is based off of Ian Reid's 2016 novel by the same name. I was psyched to hear that Kaufman would be undertaking the film adaptation because the book is so right up my alley. It's a surrealist horror story that involves a female narrator going on a trip with her boyfriend to meet his parents. She is grappling with "ending things" and it all starts to go downhill and get fever-dreamish from there. The movie basically hits the beats that the original does, but without saying too much, Kaufman does still put his own spin on it. I won't knock any changes, though. A piece of art can be changed only slightly to completely alter it's meaning (not that this is doing that). We learned this from the whole Kubrick and Stephen King drama with The Shining. Anyways, is the movie better? Eh, I don't know yet. They're different but also the same, which is a theme that is really prevalent in these so maybe this is just the meta-ness of it all.
Comparisons aside, the acting is great, the score brings you in, the writing is obviously amazing, and the visuals are all interesting as well as eye-catching. Every moment and piece of dialogue is purposeful and ties in with something else, and it feels like the level of finite detail that you'd find in any other Kaufman piece of work. There isn't a lot to hate on here. The dinner table scene is fantastic and you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it. It's creatively fresh when it comes to genre. I feel like the film emphasizes that it's a thriller first, so there are plenty of unsettling and strange sequences that work great. When you engage with this film, it can psychologically wrap you in to get even more of an effect on you. Now, it should not go without saying that this movie contains some genuinely funny moments. Part of that is due to some extreme awkwardness and uncomfortably as a viewer, but another part comes from references, artistic nods, and recurring bits.
Let's go over my gripes, which are pretty minimal. At times, I felt like the dialogue/narration was a bit too philosophically heady. However, I want to say that the inclusion of that is kind of the point during these scenes since 1. These characters are just those types of people, and 2. Some of these are road-trip conversations, which is a typical space for that. *This can also be better explained by the ending. So, yes, some of it feels purposeful, but there were a few other moments that lacked the subtlety to let other elements speak for themselves. I don't count this as a spoiler, but, there's this scene in Act I where Jake is telling Lucy about a gruesome way a pig died on his farm, and instead of letting that speak for itself in the context of the movie, the narrator starts to pontificate on death and existence and such. Look, I'm fine with overt existentialism in movies, and that's sort of what Kaufman is all about anyways, but some people don't like it at all. I can imagine some might find the characters as an indication that the writer is pretentious or something, but I just ask for subtlety when it comes to the coverage of those things.
That being said, it's self-explanatory that this film is not for everybody. It's more of a grower than a show-er. I wouldn't stand up on a soapbox in town-square with a Blu-ray copy in hand and demand everyone go see it, but I would say that it pays off if you're willing to commit to viewing it and thinking about it. It can lead to some engaging conversations and personal thinking sessions, so if you're going into this with an open mind, I'd definitely say to go for it and hit the play button. Charlie Kaufman movies always have a moment where he takes it 1000 miles an hour and it's so disorienting that it feels like you're being jettisoned out of a plane ride halfway through, so be prepared to eventually lose all understanding of what you might know and just accept your confusion. Part of the fun of his movies is trying to piece everything together while the credits are rolling, and most of the time, you'll come up with some cool theories about what you just saw. These lead to the BEST conversations with others.
I'm a little worried that the film will get negative reception from mainstream audiences. Certain demographics will see the little preview trailer thing that Netflix gives and expect some run- of-the-mill teenage horror flick like The Visit or something but end up being bored and confused. There are themes/messages in this film that people won't know to look for and that scares me because this is a piece of art that's trying to say something and it deserves critical appraise for how hard it works to build meaning.
I'm thinking that I'll rate this a 9/10* with a real possibility that it could rise higher with more time and viewing. You may see an edit from me here at some point, and I'll be sure to star it if I change my mind!
*Edit as of 11/21: this is easily a 10/10 film. The amount of crazy detail to uncover and layers to pull back through multiple viewings of this are insurmountable. It's so worthy of a thorough analysis and fits right in with the other awesome Kaufman movies.
Note: I'm still working away at articles for The Bullpen, but just saw this movie and wanted to share my initial thoughts. Apologies in advance since posts on here will continue to be sporadic!
