The End

Post apocalyptic movies are probably my favorite genre, and I love Michael Shannon and Tilda Swinton, so I was really looking forward to this movie. I also like musicals, but I did have my doubts about whether the two genres could mix.

Maybe they can, but not this time, because as a musical, it's *absolutely terrible*. The songs are so generic and bland that you forget them the minute they end. Seriously, I watched this last night and can't remember a single song. Michael Shannon does have a surprisingly good singing voice, but Tilda Swinton sounds pretty much exactly like you would expect Tilda Swinton to sound, and that's not good.

Setting the music aside, it's a pretty mediocre story. It's about a family and a few others living an "idyllic" life underground after some sort of never specified apocalypse. Things get shaken up when a newcomer arrives, and then.... well, not much happens. Certainly not enough to fill two and a half hours.

I'm glad I watched it on Hulu rather than wasting money at the theater.

With some sort of global apocalypse having occurred up top, a family have taken refuge deep inside a salt mine where dad's previous profession in the energy sector has ensured that they live a civilised and well appointed life. With Reubens and Rembrandt augmenting their oak-clad walls, Michael Shannon and Tilda Swinton have brought up their son, George MacKay, with the help of her best friend Bronagh Gallagher, a doctor (Lennie James) and their gay butler (Tim McInnerny). They spend their days rehearsing for disaster scenarios and rearranging their home, whilst the son writes a memoir for his father that marries an (environmental) history of the world with a curiously slanted homage to the efforts made by his father to provide unlimited cheap energy to the masses! Then one day, this Elysian dream becomes compromised by the arrival of a young girl (Moses Ingram) and that puts them into a quandary. Do they let her stay or do they evict her back from whence she came? If she stays, how might she upset the dynamic amongst a family who have clearly only a wafer thin sheen over a multitude of issues from their respective pasts that have largely been forgotten for then twenty-odd years they have lived their subterranean existences? There is singing, and a lot of singing - and with the possible exception of Ingram, none of them are very good at it. That doesn't matter, though, as the score from Marius de Vries and Josh Schmidt combines just about everything from Rachmaninov and Gershwin to Lloyd-Webber, Rice, Pasek & Pau. Once your ears get used to the sometimes grimace-inducing falsetto of an enthusiastic MacKay and an on-form but fairly tuneless Swinton then this actually works quite entertainingly. Gallagher can always be relied upon to add a little vitality to a story and McInnerny also knows how to ham things up (just as he did in "Gladiator II") to good effect, too. The timelines jump now and again, but never by much and it has quite a quirky effect on the delivery as characters appear to, well, disappear, at the end of the scene. MacKay steals this for me, delivering a role that reminded me a little of Luke Treadaway's Olivier award winning stage effort as "Christopher" from "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time". His journey to adulthood being tempered by a very slightly autistic characterisation; a dependant relationship with his mother and his own clearly awakening hormonal desires, too. It's long, and at times can be a bit hit or miss - but generally it does flow along well, in a very theatrically staged fashion and if you are looking to see something that takes just about everyone from their comfort zone, then this might be for you.

I went in with an open mind and the expectation that I might be about to watch something unconventional. The post apocalyptic bunker premise I found very intriguing and the cast were impressive given the film had such little publicity. Tilda Swinton has been involved in some really unique independent films over the last 5 years, and although I've not enjoyed them all, it's still a strong indication that if she's attached the film will at least be inventive

The End certainly isn't like anything I've seen before, but unfortunately I didn't find it an enjoyable 2.5 hours. It's a small cast working in a relatively small space delivering the story through words rather than action. This makes it feel drawn out, with just not enough variety to keep me engaged.

The singing was a surprise and is happening almost straight away once the film starts. The instrumental music was very stirring and big, but the songs were too slow paced for my taste. They didn't seem to be used to drive forward the plot or share any important new character details other than what you could otherwise pick up from dialogue and there were a lot.

I did enjoy the acting and the setting and I also thought some of the themes and metaphor was potentially interesting but they did seem to be working with a lot of big ideas on society, inequality, human connectedness, grief, regret. The whole gambit of human experience and global issues seemed to be hinted at at some point.

I don't think I had been equally excited for a film as I was nervous in a long time. Oppenheimer's feature debut was bound to be an uncompromising and singular vision, but I truly haven't seen anything like it. Clearly they have no idea how to market this film because neon is supposed to be releasing this limited in December and there's still no poster or trailer. I digress, but this film truly had me perked up throughout most of its runtime. Technically, this film has the sauce. Really interesting and detailed environment, cinematography and the use of lighting are also critical and work to contextualize scenes. The weak links are in the story and the music. While I don't think the golden age-style musical is necessary a gimmick, I don't think it's as fully realized or utilized as well as they'd hoped. I'd say for at least half the songs I was engaged but they all sound so similar. Aside from the moments where it feels like the visuals are meant to coincide with what's happening, it's just people walking around talk-singing how they feel. And it's a very thematically-loose film too, kind of has its eggs in too many baskets, without properly divulging into anything. When it's not scratching the surface of something profound, it can often feel trite. With all that being said, I really liked this movie. It's not for everyone and the dude next to me was so obviously bored, along with my girlfriend who said she'd probably never watch it again but liked it enough. You can't put it in a box and there's nothing like it which I think should merit a watch. While it's not looking to satisfy any lingering questions you might have, or any larger questions at that, it's begging something of you and asking, "are we too far gone, or guilty, to recover from our past?"

I really wanted to enjoy this musical comedy because writer/director Joshua Oppenheimer made one of the best documentaries I've seen-The Act of Killing. The ending with Anwar dry heaving on the roof remains one of the most memorable endings to anything ever.

I was amped to see his first fictional film here. It's a mixed bag sadly.

Firstly the pace is so slow and laborious that mid way through I was getting fidgety, there wasn't much drama or tension which for a film about a family living (?hiding) in a salt mine would generally generate something tense and foreboding. Sadly, it's absent here. Even the arrival of a black girl (!) would rock the apple cart but feels strangely anti-climatic.

The romance between her ('Girl') and George MacKay (' Boy') lacks chemistry and conviction.

At 2.5hrs it is too long and scenes go nowhere.

This outlandish premise may have been better helmed by Yorgos Lanthimos who would have injected much more humour and ' sickness'. In fact the weird characters reminded me of his own ' Dogtooth' .

The songs aren't that memorable and like ' Amelia Perez' would have been better suited by not featuring them at all. It doesn't add much depth to the characters situation.

Nonetheless, I admire Mr Oppenheimer's chutzpah in creating something different.

And he has got a decent supporting cast-it's great to see Lennie James, Tim McInnerny and Bronagher Gallagher all on screen for a change.

Not a film I loved but I liked and admired it.