TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2024 REVIEW! Two-time Oscar nominee Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence) has turned his talents to a fictional feature film, The End, which is one of the most batshit insane movies ever to flicker through a projector. The End is a postapocalyptic film about a family living a life of luxury in a bunker after the rest of humanity has died, and… it is a musical. And it isn’t just any musical. It isn’t funny or singable, and while it is in the style of a traditional musical, it is dramatic and sad.
The last family on Earth has Michael Shannon as the father, Tilda Swinton as the mother, and George MacKay (1917) as their son. Somehow, by virtue of the father’s immense wealth as head of a fossil fuel company, the family has survived the apocalypse in a bunker for decades, complete with servants, a chef, and the kind of fancy artwork and decor you might expect in any mansion. When a young woman shows up (Moses Ingram, Inquisitor Reva from Obi-Wan Kenobi), the son is exposed to another human and outside ideas for the first time in his life.
The presence of an outsider asking uncomfortable questions stirs up long-buried emotions and remorse in the family and servants as they begin to face how they got there and the choices they’ve made.
“…a family living a life of luxury in a bunker after the rest of humanity has died…”
The End has a fascinating setup and top-notch talent. Still, when characters burst into song, it is jarring and disorienting. All the leads can sing, but there’s something about non-operatic, intense acting leading into serious singing that is jarring, unbelievable, and off-putting. I kept thinking it was like an Andy Kaufman performance — I was constantly wondering if this was a joke or for real. At times, the situations or dancing are so silly that you can’t help but laugh, but at others, the brutal truths the characters are revealing will bring tears to your eyes. Like so much of the best art, it is so utterly confounding and bizarre that it almost stirs something frightening inside you.
The themes in The End are profound, deeply explored, and incredibly relevant in today’s society. The characters are so wonderfully crafted and acted out that they take you into the deepest, darkest recesses of the human soul. Who is responsible for climate change? What are the things we do to get by when people have power over us? What lies do we tell ourselves to avoid the horrors we have committed? Why do we let the rich live lives of extravagance while others suffer horribly? The enormity of some of these questions would be hard to tackle head-on, but by bringing them out slowly in dialog and song, we can start to grapple with them just as the characters do.
In The Act of Killing, theatrical recreation helps one of the characters confront horrific sins that he could not otherwise admit to himself. The End applies a similar conceit to these fictional characters – even if they can’t admit their darkness to others, it can come out in an internal monologue in song. That’s a fascinating idea, and it is taken to an extreme here. I’m not sure it always works, but you can’t take your eyes off it. Like Marcel Duchamp’s “sculpture” Fountain, which is essentially an upside-down urinal, you may not like it. Still, it is unquestionably art that pushes the boundaries and will get you talking. I don’t know that I really like The End, but I can’t stop thinking about it. Yet, it is something so wild, absurd, and profound that I can’t help but be glad it exists.
The End screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
"…wondering if this was a joke or for real."
