I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

Top comments

1. 

   Ronet

   Well that sure was something.
   
   It's like a therapy session by way of IKEA that you have to assemble yourself. If Synecdoche, New York helped me get my shit (relatively) together, then this helped me to move on from things. 3 years 7 months ago
2. 

   Siskoid

   From the double meaning of its title, I'm Thinking of Ending Things is constantly throwing clues at you as to what's really happening, and my friend who've read the book (the author was here a few years back thanks to our literary festival, so there are copies floating around), Charlie Kaufman's adaptation is pretty true to the original (up until he starts throwing more overt art house ideas at the screen anyway). There's really no way to discuss what the film is about without spoilers, so you've been warned.

   I think one of the late decoder rings in the film is a visual quote of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which Kaufman wrote. That overhead shot of people and things on the ice field is telling you, if you haven't come to that conclusion yet (as there are several conclusions you might have come to instead), that this is a piece about memory. And crafted memory at that. The existential trick both the film plays is to put us in the head of the girlfriend character who is really just a shifting amalgam of different women the male character imagined himself going out with, and in a turn only possible in a Kaufman film, she is sometimes aware of her bogus existence. One of the themes at play is the idea of becoming other people through osmosis, by being around them, reading them, infecting ourselves with ideas that are not our own, and you can also take see the narrative as an exploration of that idea, even if the climax necessarily veers in another direction. The fragmentation of the male character into components that have a life of their own touches on that, but is also fueled by deep self-loathing that makes even a fictionalized "other" more palatable than the self (there are definitely shades of Adaptation in here), but a lot of Lucy says, feels or is told can actually be interpreted as Jake's internal monologue.

   One to chat about after it's over, though it'll necessarily leave some viewers behind, perhaps as early as the langorous first road trip. 3 years 7 months ago
3. 

   Esnaider

   This movie is doomed as fuck, gonna be the subject of lots of Big Brain memes and a lot of people will hate it and not even watch it, because of all the pseudo-intellectuals loving it's huge pile of philosophical, cinematic and literary reference dumping.
   But aside of what's probably going to be the reaction to it, the movie it's still pretty much everything that does a Kaufman movie (Much as if it were a sequel to Synecdoche). like things that only truly work in the medium of film on the visuals, the editing and the sound, has questionings on the passing of time, the losing of the self both through aging and through relations with others, and lots of poetic mentioning of other's writings
   Color-wise it's good and performances are fucking great, like everyone, specially the lead actress
   The focus does get lost a bit by the third act, but in the middle of all that, the hallway dance sequence its filled with a profound beauty that can only be achieved through great directing
   And during the whole thing there was always this oppressive feeling of depression, loss and contained anger and horror 3 years 7 months ago

Friends