‘The End’ REVIEW: The Weirdest Sisyphean Musical
‘The End’ REVIEW: The Weirdest Sisyphean Musical
Michael Shannon, George McKay, Tilda Swinton, and Bronagh Gallagher as the father, son, mother, and friend, respectively | Still taken from IMDb
When one thinks of Joshua Oppenheimer, powerful documentaries like The Act of Killing or The Look of Silence emerge as the first things to consider. Such seminal works were important towards informing society of an injustice as invisible as the mass killings in Indonesia. These compelling documentaries feel so interrelated to each that seeing Oppenheimer conceive The End feels so strange. It begs the question, how and why?
In an interview related to the film, Oppenheimer points out that the film’s core structure is partially inspired by segments from creating both films. Details such as his subjects working on a musical about their participation in the Indonesian mass killings, or an oil tycoon’s intentions to purchase a bunker should the world collapse on itself. The End seems to draw more on the latter, where the director opines about “...how would they cope with their legacy before the world ended?” The End seems to be the bizarre result of this examination, a repetitive apocalyptic musical from the perspective of the ultra-powerful who were forced to make sacrifices that would haunt them and such.
The film primarily operates from the perspective of a family whose names are never said. Being survivors of a collapsed world and having escaped to a vast underground bunker, these nameless figures played by the likes of George McKay, Michael Shannon, and Tilda Swinton are the most detached characters to possibly exist in this world. They sing about ballet and deceased dogs and loneliness as something to long for, but the audience is reminded to keep a distance. At some point, there is an unexpected new survivor whom they find while they’re out exploring the vast underground, but her inclusion bears little importance in comparison to the sweeping indifference of the family in question.
The son is singing a musical number in his family’s art room while the new arrival, played by Moses Ingram, looks from another room | Still taken from the trailer
With sincere appreciation, The End really does have a unique concept going for it. But the execution of its details concerning lost humanity and the wonder of the post-apocalyptic world just suffer from the perceived humanity of its nameless family. Conflicts between the nameless son and his parents, as well as the involvement of a new, discovered survivor, don’t really seem fleshed out to have a clear adherence towards a compelling understanding of their dissonance. It’s a shame because this film does capture a lot of things right, from the design of the bunker to the incredibly bleak and empty coloring. It’s enriching to see how cold and desolate even the underground world of The End feels.
But given the nature of this film is a musical, an element so crucial to its success is having meaningful songwriting that carries the characters’ loneliness and desire to compelling heights. Instead, the whole concept suffers because this aspect, the very thing that makes it stand out from plenty of post-apocalyptic dramas, only makes the film more flat than devoid.
Where the film means to make its audience feel more indifferent to the characters, it only works to make them more indifferent to the film’s concept. The tragedy of it is that a central element of the film, these characters’ desire to process their own humanity, becomes quite laughable and even drowsy. The whole thing feels so sisyphean to the extent that musings about one’s dog or their lost passion for ballet become pointless.
The End wasn’t made to create sympathy for the ultra-rich anyway, but its direction is quite muddled and meaninglessly repetitive. It’s richly detached to a fault.
The End is part of QCinema 2024’s lineup as part of the Screen International competition.
