As it should always be stated for musical reviews, I struggle with movie musicals. It is a genre that I have always struggled with as anytime a musical number breaks out, I find myself rolling my eyes. So please keep this in mind with this review. Surprisingly enough, I found myself enjoying Joshua Oppenheimer’s The End at TIFF. I found it to be a fun campy ride. However, the moment I start to process what I watch, the less I like it. It might be a fun ride while watching The End, but it starts to crumble the moment you begin to think about it.
Inspired by billionaires currently building sprawling bunkers meant to survive the apocalypse, like Mark Zuckerberg, The End is a character study musical/drama about a billionaire family that might have caused the end of the world. Do they reflect on their actions? Do they grieve or regret? Or do they simply, don’t care? These questions are at the heart of The End. Yet, these questions are never really answered.
We meet Mother (Tilda Swinton), Father (Michael Shannon) and Son (George MacKay) in their bunker with their servants. Within minutes, the trio and company break out into song about how happy they are living in their isolated bunker. We follow their daily routine from swimming, communal breakfast, rearranging Hudson River School paintings, and safety drills. It is a mundane life filled with disillusion that they are truly happy. Father becomes obsessed with correcting his stained image with his heavily edited memoir. While Mother is haunted by nightmares as she regrets leaving her family behind. While their Son, doesn’t know anything of the outside world as he was born in the bunker, lives a naïve and sheltered life.
However, their lives are turned upside down when Girl (Moses Ingram) shows up on their doorstep. Immediately they wish to kill her as she is an outsider, but eventually they welcome her to the family. During this transition, the family is forced to face the reality of their actions. She is a survivor of a world they burned. She is the personification of their unconscious guilt, you think there would be some conflict? Sadly, there isn’t, as The End feels afraid of its own themes.
During the Q&A with Oppenheimer after the screening of the film, I found myself baffled by what he was talking about. He talked extensively about how this film is about forgiveness, accepting the consequences of one’s actions, and a warning to humanity if we keep going down the path we are on. This conversation led to the end for The End. These themes were never really explored in the film as it was more focused on bland and unmemorable musical numbers than thematic exploration. I respect the ambition of making this a movie musical, but the more he talked about the film, the more cringy and pretentious it became.
Despite this growing resentment, I commend the ensemble as they fully embraced the campiness of The End. Their vocal performances are by no means perfect, but they more than make it up for it with their acting performances. With Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George MacKay and Moses Ingram leading this cast, they undoubtedly gave good performances.
Overall, despite initially enjoying The End, I find myself growing less fond of it by the minute. It is undoubtedly ambitious, to which I must give it credit. But it is that pretentious ambition that led to this film’s downfall. I do see its potential on Broadway though.
My Rating: C
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