The End

Sometimes, you really have to admire a film that takes a big swing, even if it is missed. Other times, as Michael Powel once said, best to just not talk about those films. Joshua Oppenheimer's narrative feature debut falls into the latter camp. The director of such original and profound documentaries as The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence creates a nearly unwatchable post-apocalyptic sci-fi fable about a wealthy family who escaped into the comfort and security of a luxurious underground compound and begin to question their seemingly idealistic existence when they allow a stranger to join them. I have no idea what this movie might have been like as a straight-up, 90-minute Twilight Zoney sci-fi feature, but as a 148-minute musical, it's nearly impossible to sit through. The eclectic and impressive cast features Tilda Swinton as the mother, Michael Shannon as the father, George MacKay as the son, Tim McInnerny as the family butler, Lennie James as the family doctor, and Bronagh Gallagher as the mother's best friend who is the closest the son has to a buddy or a lover until this new arrival, Moses Ingram shows up. But watching them sing their emotions via the monotonous, repetitive, non-melodic song by Joshua Schmidt and Marius de Vries is just too much to ask of any audience. These tunes make the bland songs in this same year's tonally erratic mash-up of a crime thriller and family drama, Emilia Perez, seem like West Side Story.