I'm Thinking of Ending Things

[austingirl 2191]

It's a bizarre, trippy new Charlie Kaufman movie on Netflix starring Jessie Buckley (Lyudmilla in Chernobyl) and Jesse Plemons. Do yourself a favor and try not to read anything about it before seeing it, but if you're a Kaufman fan you should enjoy it. I'll put some spoilery stuff in spoiler tags.

Spoiler

The ending didn't quite land for me - I had to poke around the internet after to confirm what I thought had happened. The movie is based on a book that apparently makes the connection between the janitor and the other characters very clear at the end. I want to do a rewatch now to see everything again through the lens of knowing the whole story.

 

[Celery Man 20981]

watched it last night, put some thoughts in the Netflix thread but yeah... that was weird and possibly good but definitely interesting. Weird. 

 

PLATITUDES, ALL!

[Celery Man 20981]

just read an explainer and yeah i totally missed the overall thing that was going on, if that was supposed to be clear (I think maybe it was and wasn't - not supposed to be easily understood but definitely made clear through careful examination). I may watch again at some point.

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

Jesus this was a long form of the same basic premise. I get it. Janitor.  Yet there’s still over an hour left.  
 

It’s no Adaptation. 

[CurlyDumps 4476]

On 9/5/2020 at 9:20 AM, Celery Man said:

just read an explainer and yeah i totally missed the overall thing that was going on, if that was supposed to be clear (I think maybe it was and wasn't - not supposed to be easily understood but definitely made clear through careful examination). I may watch again at some point.

I think I figured out what was going on at some point. What explainer did you read?

[Celery Man 20981]

I think.... this one

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-09-04/im-thinking-of-ending-things-explained-netflix

 

I think I would have picked up on it more/quicker if I had been more actively watching the movie from the get. I've watched a ton of movies this year and was filling out some paperwork as I started this one, not realizing how... both weird and visual it would be.

[Harrison Bergeron 1798]

Meh. We made the mistake of picking this off of a web site because I let the wife pick the movie. It was obvious from the get-go that Jake was the Janitor. It was just a tortuous two hours of bloviation on things like the new swing set at the old house. I thought the ending made sense - just like the pigs on the farm, he died from sitting still. Like the pigs, he died a slow, agonizing death because he never moved, never left home. Basically like a lot of artsy movies takes a simple concept and tries to outsmart itself with a bunch of boring, unattractive actors and obscure references to literature only an English major or Brooklyn barista would enjoy.

Edited August 26, 2021 by Harrison Bergeron

[C-Man 27239]

On 9/5/2020 at 11:57 AM, Liquor and Poker said:

It’s no Adaptation. 

God, I love that fucking movie.

[WhatTheBuck 28794]

On 8/26/2021 at 1:17 AM, C-Man said:

God, I love that fucking movie.

It’s brilliant. And it’s tempting to read The Orchid Thief just to see how much it differs from the “adaptation” which is a masterpiece of self-referential fiction. I can’t even imagine how Charlie Kauffman came up with that story about himself and writing the adaptation and with the call-backs to Being John Malkovich. Which was also brilliant. And anyone who disses Nic Cage should totally watch Adaptation. Such a great performance in a dual role.

And then how could Synecdoche, New York suck so hard? It’s a mystery. 

[Chips O'Toole 1326]

I don't think it is a mystery at all.  Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry were able to channel Kaufman's schizophrenic storytelling into 3 incredible movies.  After watching Synecdoche, I was pretty sure I would never watch another Kaufman film that he actually directed himself.  I wasn't even the least bit interested in seeing his new film, as I believe he cannot put his own stories on film in a coherent way.  

Edited August 30, 2021 by Chips O'Toole

[C-Man 27239]

9 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

It’s brilliant. And it’s tempting to read The Orchid Thief just to see how much it differs from the “adaptation” which is a masterpiece of self-referential fiction. I can’t even imagine how Charlie Kauffman came up with that story about himself and writing the adaptation and with the call-backs to Being John Malkovich. Which was also brilliant. And anyone who disses Nic Cage should totally watch Adaptation. Such a great performance in a dual role.

And then how could Synecdoche, New York suck so hard? It’s a mystery. 

Nic Cage is as bipolar an actor as I remember ever seeing. Sometimes he's utterly brilliant and other times he -- and the material -- is just gutter trash.

[WhatTheBuck 28794]

34 minutes ago, C-Man said:

Nic Cage is as bipolar an actor as I remember ever seeing. Sometimes he's utterly brilliant and other times he -- and the material -- is just gutter trash.

Yeah, he’ll do anything for a paycheck. But he’s had his moments. Remember when Eddie Murphy did Best Defense?

[henrygandorf 29194]

10 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

And then how could Synecdoche, New York suck so hard? It’s a mystery. 

the trailer was so good, i was so excited to see it.  and yeah.

i still have "little person" on my playlist somewhere.

[WhatTheBuck 28794]

8 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

the trailer was so good, i was so excited to see it.  and yeah.

i still have "little person" on my playlist somewhere.

It was brutal. I kept watching thinking that anytime now it was going to be good.

Nope.

[C-Man 27239]

1 hour ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Yeah, he’ll do anything for a paycheck. But he’s had his moments. Remember when Eddie Murphy did Best Defense?

It's weird. As I recall, Eddie Murphy isn't the problem in Best Defense. It's just not very good material. Nic Cage can be the absolute worst thing in some of the movies he's done.