"I'm Thinking of Ending Things" — Lights in the fog with Director Rob Apse — Reevaluating Nero
What kind of person lets a fly sit on their head for TWO FULL MINUTES!?
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Now Showing: I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
Those who have seen other entries in writer-director Charlie Kaufman’s oeuvre, particularly Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, will not be surprised to learn hear that his latest film, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, is a profoundly weird mindbender that is as much a journey through memory and parallel realities (or are they fantasies?) as it is a story about a relationship unwinding during a Hudson Valley snowstorm. Starring Jesse Plemons—who has quietly emerged as Hollywood’s greatest weirdo—and Jessie Buckley—fresh off turns on Chernobyl and FX’s Fargo—the film follows a fractured, almost fractal-like, plot. What begins as a road trip by a couple, Jake and a young woman with many names, with a strained relationship turns… well, rather odd, as they plow deeper into a snow storm. Ostensibly, they are on their way to visit Jake’s parents in his childhood home, but in between discussions of poetry and existential dread, the audience soon begins to doubt the realness of the journey itself.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things defies attempts to make sense of it. Despite a near total rejection of linear storytelling or clear character development, the film holds one’s attention. The mystery of what is happening, and why, is enough to keep the viewer engaged, and the oddness of the whole endeavor creeps up gradually. At first, it’s easy to believe that you’re imagining things: The cutting is just a bit off, isn’t it? Wasn’t her hair the other way in the last scene? Hang on, is that the pig? Gradually, it becomes impossible to deny that it just doesn’t make conventional sense. But that’s okay. It’s about mystery, memory, multiple timelines and multiple personalities. It’ll all make sense eventually, or it won’t. Without giving away the ending, that’s part of the point.
Kaufman, to his credit, avoided making a movie that was weird for weirdness sake. There is a rhyme and reason behind it, and it’s so artfully done, that it feels like a pleasure to watch, even during moments when it’s difficult to discern what is actually happening or why. The production design is littered with visual clues and hints, and it leads the viewer, and the characters, to the truth. Beyond Kaufman’s careful writing and direction, the twin performances from Plemons and Buckley keep the story moving forward with propulsive intensity, even during moments that seem superficially slow or quiet. It’s a pleasure to watch both actors at work, and they help Kaufman deliver what is certainly his most complex, and perhaps his best, work to date. I’m Thinking of Ending Things is a challenging, aesthetically powerful and devilishly complicated film, and it should not be missed.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things is available to stream on Netflix.
Coming Soon: The Last Lightkeepers
Director Rob Apse has a new film coming to festivals soon. The Last Lightkeepers explores the complex history of America’s lighthouses, and how they went from being critical national infrastructure to historical curios in a matter of decades. Apse recently caught up with Highly Transmissible and had this to say about his experiencing making the film (he shot virtually all of it by himself):
I spent a night on Thatcher Island. It’s a 10 to 15 acre island off of Rockport, Mass. It’s got two giant lighthouses on it. Usually when I go to film, it’s when it looks like the weather is going to be good, since I’ll be outdoors. That afternoon we got hit with a microburst, one of those super quick storms that comes out of nowhere. It happened when we were just walking to the lighthouse and starting to film. The sky just got so dark and I was worried about it.
It ended up being one of the coolest things in the film. This lightening storm came in, and we were at the top of the tower, and [the owner] is telling this story about how right after the treaty of Versailles the ship was coming back with Woodrow Wilson on it, and and they almost hit this island when the Captain saw the lighthouse. It turned out FDR was also on that ship. Even now, you go out there in the fog, and you can’t see anything, and there’s lightening, and then you see the light flashing in the distance. When you’re out on some of these lighthouses, even the ones that are onshore, you feel like you’re on a different planet.
Reading List:
I’ll run a full interview with Apse here when the film premiers (it’s fantastic, by the way), but in the mean time, here’s a recent piece from the Boston Globe.
And in case you missed it, the Wall Street Journal has a story and data visualization tracing COVID-19 in the U.S. back to at least early January. Kind of puts those holiday head colds in a new light, doesn’t it?
Finally, there’s a fantastic feature reevaluating the legacy of the Roman Emperor Nero in the most recent issue of Smithsonian. New scholarship argues that he was actually not that bad and really more artsy fartsy than anything else.