I'm fascinated by all forms of storytelling; movies, television, mythology, fairy tales, and urban legends. As Jake and his girlfriend drive to his parents’ house, their strange, meandering conversation contains numerous clues that things are not at all what they seem, with virtually every line a piece of a larger puzzle. It’s still mysterious.”, “In truth, it’s about so many deep, human experiences and emotions that it can be whatever you want it to be,” says Collette, who plays Jake’s mother. What he has really created is something far richer than your typical Hollywood fright fest, and it is ultimately up to you to supply the existential scares from your own mind and experience. But here is some of what you may have missed. Commentary: Times are bad, so keep your uplift. The nation’s overlapping crises have sparked the notion that audiences want to be uplifted, more than anything else. The fact is, if you go back and watch the movie a second time, you’ll realize that the clues were there in plain sight from the start. As she speaks in voice-over of her “rare and intense attachment” to her boyfriend, we see first the back of an old man and then the back of Plemons as Jake. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. A ‘tragic, upsetting and frankly overwhelming’ situation unfolds as COVID-19 deaths soar in L.A. County. You either get it or you don’t.”. Pass holders who paid for days beyond the parks’ closure last March are to get refunds. “It was the most vulnerable and exposing place to stand in but also the most liberating.”. In The Midnight Sky's First Trailer, the End of All Things Is Beautiful. Instead, the janitor spends his time being ridiculed by high school students, diligently scrubbing floors, while getting lost inside his own head. Josh Rottenberg covers the film business for the Los Angeles Times. © 2021 Forbes Media LLC. At one point, Jake references Wordsworth’s poem “Intimations of Immortality From Recollections of Childhood,” an exploration of aging and the faded glories of youth. Charlie Kaufman’s latest film for Netflix, I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, is deeply confusing, even for a Kaufman film. It appears to be a traumatizing incident from the janitor’s childhood, but might also represent his decaying mental state. Indeed, there’s a lot to unpack in the film — too much, frankly, for one article. There is a simple narrative to cling to and then there is what it is really about.”. Likewise, Kaufman says he never cared about delivering a head-snapping M. Night Shyamalan-style turn at the end, nor did he see himself as making a thriller per se. Fantasies, projections, memories and delusions. As strangely shapeshifting as the scenes at the parents’ house were as scripted, Collette says Kaufman helped the cast stay locked into the deeper meaning. The janitor appears to have created Jake as a younger, slightly altered version of himself, while his mysterious lady-friend is a complete fantasy, perhaps a composite of women he has previously encountered, and possibly dated. Hei! Give me ‘Crime and Punishment’ and ‘The Godfather’. Their mockery bleeds into his fantasies, and judging by the garbage container packed with uneaten ice cream, the janitor has likely revisited this same scenario several times, in his head. Kaufman’s films aren’t supposed to be explained, really - they exist to be experienced. Rest assured, you’re not alone. Charlie Kaufman’s latest film for Netflix, I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, is deeply confusing, even for a Kaufman film. Charlie Kaufman's new movie I'm Thinking of Ending Things is now on Netflix, so we've taken a delve into its weirdness to explain what it's all about. And we're seriously glad it did. The incredibly awkward dinner with Jake’s parents provides multiple clues about the janitor’s upbringing and shattered dreams; the man lived a deeply unfulfilled life, never getting the chance to explore his interest in art, culture and science. Here, we try to interpret the ending for you. Laughing on The Outside - Bernadette Carroll Where Is the Love - The Monzas Never - Larry Chance and The Earls Have You Ever Loved Someone - The Vocaleers via Netflix/ The End of the F***ing World Funnel of Love - Wanda Jackson At Seventeen - Janis Ian Superboy & Supergirl - Tullycraft Here is what we know, Martin Luther King Jr. Day events lead this weekend’s 21 culture picks. Even in his own imagination, the janitor isn’t the hero of his story. Did the janitor really “end things,” alone, inside his frost-covered car? The two major human governments, of … At the Tulsey Town ice cream stand where Jake and his girlfriend later make an impromptu stop — which has the dreamlike, old-timey feel of a place lodged deep in one’s memory — attentive viewers may notice that the teenage employees were fleetingly seen earlier as students at the school where the janitor works. Review: Nate Parker takes on police brutality in ‘American Skin,’ but the drama plays like parody, Five years after ‘The Birth of a Nation,’ Nate Parker returns with the misguided contemporary drama ‘American Skin.’, Review: Nine children with six women? He previously worked as a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly, and his work has also appeared in the New York Times, Fast Company and other publications.