This is usually my kind of film. A simplistic, low-budget drama that tells a human story. Many of those films are my favourites, so when I heard Jesse Eisenberg was tackling a movie like this for his first directorial feature I was intrigued. After watching it though, I have to admit I'm pretty disappointed. Not because Eisenberg is a bad filmmaker by any means, but due to the fact that I just didn't care about anything in this movie. Here's why, even though Eisenberg directs his first film well, you can probably avoid When You Finish Saving the World.
The film follows Evelyn (Julianne Moore) and her son Ziggy (Finn Wolfhard) as they live very different lives and don't get along. Ziggy makes money by playing music for an audience online and Evelyn is a teacher who's making friends with people her son's age in order to feel more accomplished. Ziggy tries to fit in with his classmates by pretending to be interested in what they're talking about, but this is a very mirky choice on his part. That's pretty much the entire movie in a nutshell honestly. A movie like this can work really well, but for me, what ruined it for me were the characters.
A film that revolves around characters where not much happens is fine if it's written well, and it's not that the film is poorly written, it's just that the focus was in the wrong place and the characters themselves were the most unlikable I've seen in a long time. I disliked Evelyn and Ziggy right when the film started, so I spent the entire film rooting for them to change. Without ruining where the film goes, I'll just say that I barely felt a progression of any kind for either of them. There are clear underlying themes present here too, especially to do with politics and the environment, but it all just felt like dialogue that was brushed over. I love these two performers, but I had much more attachment to the side characters, and that's a big problem.
Overall, When You Finish Saving the World proved to me that Jesse Eisenberg can handle directing a film and knows how to pull a good performance, so I will gladly watch his next effort. That said though, I just found this to be a mess. I normally find that a singular writer for a film is best, but I believe a second eye would've helped make this script much better and more interesting. Although quite and space, I would actually say the most impressive aspect of this film is the music from composer Emile Mosseri. I've liked his work on films like The Last Black Man in San Francisco and most recently in Stutz. It's hard to praise anything else though in my opinion. When You Finish Saving the World.
