Joshua Oppenheimer’s debut narrative film is so out there that it’s simultaneously impossible to ignore yet impossible to fully recommend. It’s a bleak apocalyptic film about a family that’s spent 20 years being the last family on Earth, living in a salt mine that they’ve turned into a luxurious home underground while the world has ended outside their walls. And to top it all, it’s a musical, with Sondheim-esque numbers about the character’s outlook on their living conditions, whether as a layer of irony or meant to be taken literally.
The tone and approach of The End is so fascinating and out there compared to most films that you absolutely want to see where it’s going, even when it’s constantly working against itself. The clashing tones prevent the audience from feeling the internal dread that they should when sharing a space with these characters, and the musical elements feel completely out of place and pointlessly drag the film’s runtime. The awkward humor often misses the mark, and it often glosses over its seemingly enticing themes. Though Michael Shannon’s character has lots of layers that aren’t explored in an inviting way, his and Swinton’s singing parts aren’t too strong, while George MacKay and Moses Ingram’s performances and voices work much better in the film. Still, there’s no reason it needed to have multiple song breaks, which don’t even feel original or lively, rather just an invitation to watch something weird. It’s a 148-minute movie that wants to achieve so much that all the elements end up toppling each other over. The concept of escapism from a lie of reality through a wealthy family’s perspective in darkness could have come together for something brilliant, especially with its approach to political commentary, but the tone creates an experience that’s no longer striking by the end, rather just a poor script insisting on continuing through a sea of nonsense until a baffling stopping point.
2.5/5
Review by: Gal Balaban