{"id":23393,"date":"2020-08-08T21:29:37","date_gmt":"2020-08-08T11:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=23393"},"modified":"2020-12-08T21:37:22","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T11:37:22","slug":"im-thinking-of-ending-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=23393","title":{"rendered":"I’m Thinking of Ending Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tagfilm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"imthinkingposter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Director:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Charlie Kaufman
\nWriter:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Charlie Kaufman
\nCast:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, Toni Collette, David Thewlis<\/p>\n

\u201cI<\/span>\u2019m thinking of ending things\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A young woman sits in the passenger seat of a car as her boyfriend Jake drives them to meet his parents.\u00a0 They\u2019ve been together for seven weeks and she ponders whether its worth continuing the relationship.<\/p>\n

From this simple premise I\u2019m Thinking of Ending Things<\/em> develops into a tense, uncomfortable psychological thriller before descending into a full blown surrealistic horror where time becomes non linear and the characters travel through multiple dimensions.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m not totally sure.\u00a0 Months later, I\u2019m still processing what I witnessed.<\/p>\n

Each act in I\u2019m Thinking of Ending Things<\/em> feels like it exists as its own entity, as the film jarringly (by design) shifts between genres and keeps the viewer disoriented.\u00a0 The young woman (played by Jessie Buckley) isn\u2019t even named.\u00a0 Nor is anyone else for that matter, except the boyfriend Jake.<\/p>\n

The set up for meeting Jake\u2019s parents has the trappings of a traditional horror film.\u00a0 There\u2019s some unexplained scratches on a door.\u00a0 The music and lighting is moody and oppressive.\u00a0 The meeting with Jake\u2019s parents \u2013 played by David Thewlis and Toni Collette \u2013 is agonizing and uncomfortable. Thewlis in particular seems unhinged although the film doesn\u2019t immediately play its hand as to whether he\u2019s sinister or simply strange.<\/p>\n

Soon after, I\u2019m Thinking of Ending Things<\/em> begins an accelerated descent into madness and chaos.\u00a0 Timelines suddenly appear to skip and fold back on itself.\u00a0 The young woman receives a cryptic voicemail memo about having \u201cone question to answer\u201d and suddenly the parents seem to exist in the house as both their younger selves and older selves.\u00a0 What is going on here?<\/p>\n

On the drive home, Jake mentions to the young woman several events she doesn\u2019t recall.\u00a0 A brief pitstop at an ice cream parlour gets weird.\u00a0 One thing leads to another and soon Jake and the woman visit a high school whose sole occupant is a janitor that the film has flashed back to periodically throughout the film.\u00a0 Something happens<\/em> which I\u2019m not sure I can do sufficient justice to describing and the final act concludes.<\/p>\n

\"imthinkingscene\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m Thinking of Ending Things<\/em> is Charlie Kaufman\u2019s first live action film he\u2019s written in twelve years.\u00a0 In Australia it was released at a time when most of the country was in some state of lockdown.\u00a0 Watching this experience<\/em>, where time is non-linear and character names don\u2019t matter, was arguably perfectly timed.\u00a0 During the time-stands-still mental haze of lockdown, I\u2019m Thinking of Ending Things<\/em> was probably evoking moods and feelings that Kaufman didn\u2019t intend, but it is to the film\u2019s benefit.<\/p>\n

I can appreciate that when viewed in the wrong mood or mindset, I\u2019m Thinking of Ending Things<\/em> could feel like a shapeless mess.\u00a0 But I can\u2019t deny the film worked for me.\u00a0 As a dark, trippy headfuck like the best works of David Lynch.\u00a0 It\u2019s evocative and expressive, a timely work during these strange days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Full of misgivings, a young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents’ secluded farm. Upon arriving, she comes to question everything she thought she knew about him, and herself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2939,2442,2745],"class_list":["post-23393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-films","tag-charlie-kaufman","tag-jesse-plemons","tag-toni-collette"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23397,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23393\/revisions\/23397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}