A musical, set in an apocalyptic world covered in snow and ice, where a small collective has been surviving very well off in a luxurious bunker. While attempting to live out the rest of their days with silver-spoon syndrome an outsider separated from her family stumbles into their home and begs them to let her stay. They reluctantly allow her to stay where-in she and their only son develop a romantic relationship. But for everyone else, this outsider is a living reflection of their own shame and the atrocities they’ve committed and buried deep down in hopes to never resurface.
It’s an apocalyptic musical. It’s whimsical Silo. It’s Blast from the Past if Adam never actually went back to the surface but instead contracted a strong case of jungle fever. And then finds out his pompous parents are cowards and liars. The End is a story about a group of people who delusionally parade about their aristocracy to distract themselves from the fact that the world has ended, and they might be responsible for it. And this they were fine with, this disgrace all their own they had come to accept even maybe forgotten until one of the offspring of the last living survivors they abandoned decades ago forces them to wake up and remember who they really are and the horrible things they did for their own self-preservation. Billions of people died, and these people all just buried their guilt and survivor’s remorse in walls of snow and ice surrounding themselves with meaningless privilege. In a world with no poor, how can there be any rich. What is power if there is nothing left to rule? If you leave humanity to die, are you still human?
I couldn’t get enough of Moses Ingram as Girl, yes that’s her name, in this movie. I had no idea the woman could sing. Her duet “Catch Fire” with romantic co-star George MacKay has been living rent free in my head for days now. Her conviction on screen is palpable as she struggles with her own survivor’s remorse after growing up in the cold is heart-wrenching. Every time she sings I think I started melting away into a big ball of man tears. Your boy is not a big musical fan but in an interview, George MacKay said something to the tune of “this was made for the big screen” and I have to agree. This film deserves your full attention from the moment MacKay as Boy reveals his desire to experience anything of the world he never got to know. He longs for the outside, longs to feel the sun, longs to express his emotions and talk about his feelings with his family, in hopes they reciprocate. But this is just not to be.
Dad, played by Michael Shannon, has an established order. He treats Boy as if he’s preparing him for the world, a world where you work on manifestos and read them aloud in your study, because this bunker has a damn study. Mom, Tilda Swinton, floats about from room to room nitpicking in the name of perfection. You never know when guest might be coming over. We must make sure there’s enough soup spoons for everyone. And yet, you can see she’s unstable and full of contempt. Everyone else in the house is just playing the role that keeps them sheltered. A Doctor, a Butler, a Friend, and Mary in addition to are all that makes up of what’s left of humanity in this world. They even put on performances for entertainment where you can clearly see these people used to be people. They used to have real worth but now have been reduced to props.
Beautifully, the real story here is told through the music. All of the emotions come out through song, which took me a while to pick up on. At first I thought they would just randomly sing short snippets of songs depending on where they were standing in the house. These aren’t long ballads but instead short melodies, where the vocalist through subtle metaphors reveal their internal conflicts. They don’t really sing and then cut to the next season as a way of transitioning through the plot points. They sing through the film, through the pain and angst, through all the shame and discomfort of knowing they’re all alone and this life they have is it, there is nothing outside left for them. There is nowhere to explore as this place was their last escape. This is expressed mostly by Boy who sings things like “I’m always too late.”. And even when Girl tries to have hope, tries to connect with Mom and Dad, tries to find what little life and living is left in this cold, shallow place her advances are rebuffed by Mom whose shell is starting to crack.
I think I could watch this film again and again, then maybe again. Every watch would reveal some new genius sentiment about where our own humanity is headed due to climate change and the hand we play in it. Or maybe I’d pick up another jab at the ridiculousness of our social customs in renowned societies of today that laude wealth as a natural born right. Either way, this film was surprisingly good and left me feeling a bit overwhelmed.
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Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Writers: Rasmus Heisterberg
Starring: Moses Ingram, Tilda Swinton, George MacKay, Michael Shannon
Runtime: 2 Hour 28 Minutes
Synopsis: An apocalyptic musical about a wealthy family living out their End Days in a bunker when an outsider shows up on their doorstep begging for a place to stay, shattering the delusional image these aristocrats had created for themselves.
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