![]() Especially in a role such as this, where because of the shifts in mood and genre and story are so abrupt, her ability to adapt and mimic are fully on display. Buckley, even though her character has no name, approaches the girlfriend with an openness and investigative nature that commands every scene. Luckily, it’s a hunt that audiences don’t have to go through on their own.Īs our spirit guides through this wintery world, both Buckley and Plemmons give career bests. It has to happen at some point… Right? Though freezing to the touch, the joy of the film is in the little clues spread throughout, the changing wallpapers and costumes, and the hunt for answers. Multiple times throughout the film, we almost get the satisfaction of a title drop from our girlfriend protagonist, but every time the words want to come out, she is interrupted by Jake, oblivious to her discomfort. Through Jessie Buckley’s masterfully narrated internal monologue, we come to understand that all she wants to do is end things with her boyfriend. The script is one of the most colorful, bleak, inventive, and hilarious writing that has ever come from Kaufman, and its ability to keep you interested and longing for more is truly spectacular. Though the film is a behemoth of complexities, it still feels as if we’ve been put in good hands. ![]() This new film is overflowing with and abundance of details, double takes, and jaw-drops that may be just enough keep people intrigued and engaged. The writer/director’s work has always been rooted in deep surrealism, but with “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”, the well goes deep and never runs dry. As the journey to and from Jake’s childhood home snowballs forward, the film and its characters become entangled in situations and conversations that expand into a tantalizingly bizarre third act that will catch everyone, even Kaufman junkies, off guard. ![]() During their snowy, wandering road trip, the weather inside and outside of the car is blisteringly cold. Similarly to the novel, Kaufman’s adaptation of “ I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is crafted around a young woman ( Jessie Buckley) who is traveling with her boyfriend, Jake ( Jesse Plemmons), for a meet-the-family dinner with his parents (played by cinematic titans Toni Collette and David Thewlis.) The couple have only been dating for six weeks. ![]() And though the journey may be understandably treacherous for some audiences, there are plenty of gems and moments along the way to keep the film’s mysteries worth the ride. It is an effortless showcase of cinematic puppetry elevated to stratospheric (sometimes unreachable) heights. Flash forward eighteen years later, and with Kaufman’s work having evolved in it’s precision and self-awareness, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is Kaufman expertly riffing on himself. Based on Iain Reid’s novel of the same title, the film marks the auteur’s first return to screen adaptation since, well, “ Adaptation” in 2002. Perhaps the most philosophically and intellectually difficult films of his career, Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is a brilliantly cold undertaking that will leave the general audiences polarized and frozen. Charlie Kaufman, everyone’s favorite emperor of existential crises is back with the Netflix release of his latest film, “ I’m Thinking of Ending Things” and this time, he takes no prisoners. ![]()
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