The End

I only knew the premise of this film going in and felt perplexed as I exited the cinema. It took me a while to start processing what kind of story I have just been told. You can take many things from this. I will spare you any analysis but this film oddly lulled me into this hidden world with grey blue tones, anxious people, sumptuous decor and numerous paintings to, well, frame the story.

This was my second musical I have ever seen in the cinema and the first being Dancer In The Dark I think I have found pieces that accompany each other pretty well. I want to see this film again sometime and maybe do some rabbit hole research first so that I can spot the things I definitely missed first time.

Enjoy. It's a lovely film.

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.

A family lives under a salt-mine from what seems to be the apocalypse. When a mysterious lady falls into their lair, her new perspective slowly changes the mood in their own lonely bunker.

The good, the story.

I love the backbone of this film. It reminds me of Blast from the Past, a somewhat similar bunker film starring Brendan Fraser. It actually nice to see Oppenheimer really understanding the ridiculous about this film and defiantly pushes the absurd comedy hidden within.

Love Mackay, who naturally looks like the guy from Garfield AND really plays up the innocence of his character. He is the hart of the film that really sticks everything together (even with my mis-givings).

I knew Oppenheimer of his masterful documentary way back in 2010s. It is by far one of the most memorable documentaries of all time AND that also has an ridiculous scenes that strays away from the dark absurdity of the film.

The bad, the music. On the very least, Oppenheimer knows the movie he is making and it really help take the bitter pill that is the musical. It literally was the musical tiktok. It is was not well written AND it is often times starts in the weirdest moments.

This would have been much better had it just be a straight forward end-of-the-world drama.

Soft recommendation.

Satire in a bunker and Singing musical? Okay I'm puzzled but intrigued. Nice environmental background (scenery).

At least one or two good actors (especially Tilda Swindon) however they all impersonate caricatures of snobs, helpers, working class...

It's not a sci fi. There is no back story, no depth, no reasoning and for some reason one didn't seem to even miss a meal after barely surviving something outside even if she sings well.

Without spoiling anything, in 3 hours you can expect something like theater with singing and discovering back stories that you probably could have written yourself for someone you hated (especially if you think the global warming should be purely blamed on a few rich people).

The end is maybe the best part of this movie.

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.