One of the biggest things I’ve noticed while reading people’s observations on the film as a whole is that it’s going over everybody’s head. I can’t even tell you how many comments I’ve read that didn’t understand the film at all. To them, it’s just this massive self-indulgent mess of incoherent dialogue, all of which amounts to nothing. Far too many people think they wasted their time watching the movie. So, my goal during this review is to maybe get you in a different mindset before you watch it. That way, you’ll have the best possible chance to enjoy it, but I fear that this is one of those instances where you’ll either understand it…or you won’t. I’m not going to hand you the meaning of the film on a silver platter. If I did that, that would be stealing the experience from somebody else.
Here’s my first suggestion: Keep an open mind and pay attention to everything. I’m not kidding when I say the entirety of this movie, whether you believe it or not, is important. The film, and Charlie Kaufman in general, is incredibly high-brow, so there’s a lot of scholarly references made in the film that won’t mean that much to you. However, if you sat and researched those references, you would be able to appreciate the whole movie a little more. You don’t NEED to understand absolutely everything, though. Just pay attention to the little things, like the main girl’s name. Every time they call her something, pay attention because her name keeps changing. That’s not much of a spoiler because its nothing they even focus on that much. If you miss it, you miss it, Kaufman doesn’t care if you catch these little things or not. But it is important, so keep an eye on that. Also keep an eye on the color changes, primarily in what the girl is wearing. As she discovers more about her world and her environment, her physical appearance keeps transforming. When you first see her, she’s very, very red. Red hair, red hat, red coat, red shirt. When she gets to the parents, there’s a lot of blue and yellow hues to what she’s wearing, which matches the odd nature of the house. In the third act, she apparently has a wardrobe change and has a blue hat, blue coat, blue shirt, and her once bright red hair is now very, very dark. This is also symbolizing the changes her character is going through.
Here’s my second suggestion: Watch this movie like it’s either an episode of The Twilight Zone or is all a dream. Charlie Kaufman often focuses on how the mind works. Most prominently seen in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, that film does a great job at showing you the weird fragments of how a mind pieces together a puzzle. I’m Thinking of Ending Things sometimes follows the same procedure, just in a much more contained and less-explosive manner. Don’t watch this as a normal linear story. Those that do will undoubtedly be lost. Instead, I implore you to watch it like it’s a puzzle that needs to be solved. Be your own Sherlock Holmes and try to solve the puzzle. If you don’t get it on the first go, watch it all over again and try again. It might take a few viewings before it clicks, but that’s okay. Don’t despair or give up, because it’s a very smart movie. Once you figure it out, your mind will be blown.
If I had anything negative to say about it at all is that I didn’t figure all the little things out. Why are there scratches at the door? Why is everyone apologizing for the smell? What’s up with the Oklahoma musical? What’s up with the dancers? There’s all these little things that happen in the movie that definitely mean something, even if metaphorically, that I couldn’t quite figure out on the first viewing, and because it’s so utterly high-brow, there’s all these references to people, books, and things that a normal audience member will never be able to understand without hours of research at minimum. So, a part of me wants to say that the film is unnecessarily self-indulgent at times, but it’s not an incoherent mess. I understand the overall point, and if you can do that, the rest won’t matter as much.
Let’s take a look at my final score. From an unbiased, technical level, I think this is a very smart movie that does a very good job at keeping things original and unpredictable. It’s slightly self-indulgent at times, but to be fair, what isn’t? My unbiased score is 90%. My personal, biased score is slightly lower at 86%, which is still pretty good, but my experience as a whole went from bored, to confused, to uncomfortable before it got interested in the film. I much prefer the last two acts over the first. Averaging out the two scores together, we come to the final rating of 88%. 88 out of 100 possible stars, granting the movie with a letter grade of B+. Not too shabby at all.
I have put off viewing this film for quite a while. The main reason for this is that I am somewhat reluctant watching a movie where the story is pretty well known before you sit down to watch it. However a few days ago I finally did and, given all the hype, I have to say that I expected more, a lot more.
Sure the movie is a cinematically very well down movie. Acting, camera and all that is excellent. Unfortunately that is all there is.
First of all, where the hell did the over-inflated budget go? Dunkirk was a major undertaking with almost 400 000 soldiers involved and hundreds and hundreds of boats. We get to see what? A few columns of soldiers, a handful of boats and three pitiful spitfires against a bomber and two Fock Wulfes. To add to this insult we pretty much get to see the same bloody event over and over from different angles. This is an insult to all the brave men that made this rescue possible.
There are a few likable people in the movie. Like the Navy commander and the elderly guy on the pleasure boat steaming to rescue. The rest are either psychotic or morons.
Realism? Not so much. Like the scene where a bunch of soldiers are trapped in a boat being shot to pieces. Would any one in their right mind really have thought they could plug dozens and dozens of holes with their hands and then sail across the channel?
Then we have the spitfire which runs out of fuel and glides around forever over the beach so the director can get some scenic shots done. Other times fairly large boats gets damaged and flips over in seconds.
I would also have expected some pre-story. Some build up. But no, the story starts right away with these measly handful of boats and planes taking for bloody ever to drag themselves over to where they are supposed to go.
Quite a disappointment indeed.
This movie explores the dynamic between nihilism and existentialism so artfully. The story could have easily fallen into using the immigrant family and multiverse tropes to create something generic but satisfying. Instead they are used to allow dramatic extremes to really highlight a deeper universal message. I wanted to share Dan Harmon's take on the meaning of life below, I think it perfectly complements the message of the film.
"The knowledge that nothing matters, while accurate, gets you nowhere. The planet is dying. The sun is exploding. The universe is cooling. Nothing's going to matter. The further back you pull, the more that truth will endure. But, when you zoom in on earth, when you zoom in to a family, when you zoom into a human brain and a childhood and experience, you see all these things that matter.
We have this fleeting chance to participate in an illusion called: I love my girlfriend, I love my dog. How is that not better?
Knowing the truth that nothing matters can actually save you in those moments. Once you get through that terrifying treshold of accepting that, then every place is the center of the universe. And every moment is the most important moment. And everything is the meaning of life."
Got this reccomended by a fellow psychology student in my health psychology class. Must say, it was quite emotional, sad, frustrating, and I got mad at some of the people trying to defend the food industry. It's not okay to only give kids hamburger, fries and pizzas for lunch with a coke/pepsi on the side. It's so not okay.
I'm glad about Mrs. Obama's initiative, sadly changing a pizza into a "vegetable" isn't good. At all. Pizza's are not healthy. Fries also aren't normal, healthy "potatoes". They're greasy, fat, and bad for the body in the long run if you eat it every day at school.
Ugh what an industry. I feel so privileged that I got to grow up in a Country where this is not what they served me when I was in school. Sadly, they didn't serve much school food at all, we had to bring from home. Though the notion of making food myself, packing my own lunch and knowing what I'm putting into my body, I got that knowledge way young. I actually enjoyed making the lunch I was bringing to school. I get the echonomy for many might not be good enough for this in America, and it's "easier" to just let kids eat what the school gives them. Though we all KNOW. IT. IS. BAD. Though trying to stand up to big corporations, NOT easy.
Everyone should watch some type of documentary about a nations health, one doesn't even need to live in America to watch this. There is so much knowledge to be taken out of such a movie, that it's NOT JUST "eat less, exercise more", it's so much more complicated than that. Maybe get rid of some of the old stereotypes about people with fat on their bodies. It sickens me that some people value people who are fat lower, than those who have a more (BMI)normal or muscular body. Even some of us praise the skinny people, those who are seriously on the verge to starvation. Starving oneself to obtain an ideal image of beauty is not good.
Watching movies like these makes me think so much. If you're a fellow student of human behaviour or if you're just curious about what food can do to your body, watch this. I'm so FED UP, and you'll be fed up too.
