Jimmy's End

I came to the movie a big fan of Alan Moore's work. I have read quite a few of his comics, and have seen some of their adaptations. I watched this movie after seeing a recent interview of his, where he mentioned this short as being the only one of his movies that he didn't want to disown. It did not disappoint.

The movie presents a gritty, surrealistic picture that puts your emotions on edge almost from the first second. There's a certain ambiance, and creeping fear or apprehension that edges into so many scenes without drawing from an obvious source. The music is subtle, and complements the film perfectly. The storyline itself is also deeply engaging, and the ah- ha moment that comes when you realize what the movie is about is quite satisfying. I don't want to reveal too much about the movie, so I will just say that you will not be disappointed, and I can't think of a better way to spend half an hour.

First off, I am a big fan of Alan Moore's writing, I own about 50 of his books, as well as his spoken word CD's and the excellent documentary film, The Mindscape of Alan Moore. Needless to say I was expecting great things from this film, but all I got was a clichéd storyline with the most overused of all twists. The acting is great, the characters are dull and one-dimensional archetypes and the fact the entire film is shot in one location makes it feel extremely cheap. The other reviewer who called Eraserhead pretentious must not have understood it, because Eraserhead is a masterpiece, one of Kubrick's favorite films to boot; Jimmy's End and its prequel film are clearly post-Lynchian and inferior to that director's work in just about every way.I wouldn't draw such a comparison if Moore didn't make snide comments about Lynch's work when confronted with the fact that Jimmy's End uses startlingly similar imagery to some of Lynch's films, the most obvious being the focus on red drapes. So in conclusion, I'd recommend avoiding this film, as it's pretty ugly and has poor sound design plus not a single likable or relatable character. The scene with the phone ringing as a lame attempt to create tension was a direct ripoff from a Takeshi Miike film called Audition which did it much more effectively, in Jimmy's end it's just annoying, like an alarm clock you can't switch off. So yeah, avoid it if you can.