Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The End” screened at Telluride and TIFF this fall. It had originally been snubbed by Cannes and Venice. The film, which currently stands at 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, now has as trailer, via Neon.
“The End” is a post-apocalyptic “Golden Age” musical. The film stars George MacKay, Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, Moses Ingram, Bronagh Gallagher, Tim McInnerny and Lennie James. The plot centers on the last human family alive. It’s much less exciting than you’d expect from that synopsis.
I’ve seen “The End” and can’t say it did much for me. It clocks in at a mind boggling 148 minutes, and it’s certainly a big swing on the part of Oppenheimer, but not much connects here. The film is set entirely in an underground bunker after a post-apocalyptic disaster, and follows idiosyncratic characters, quirky behaviors — all driven by clunky musical numbers.
Oppenheimer is known for his two highly acclaimed docs, “The Act of Killing” and “The Look of Silence,” which tackled the Indonesian mass killings of 1965-66. “The End” is his first foray in fiction filmmaking.