The End: not the 'uncompromising masterpiece' it aspires to be

Tilda Swinton plays a former ballerina who claims to have performed with the Bolshoi

(Image credit: Neon)

Joshua Oppenheimer's film is billed as a "post-apocalyptic musical" with a "bold vision", said Deborah Ross in The Spectator. Now, I am all for "bold visions", but maybe not if they have no plot and run for two and a half hours (I really feared "The End" might never end).

'Comically bad'

Set two decades after a species-obliterating environmental catastrophe, it follows the lives of an ultra-privileged trio who have taken refuge in an "exquisitely decorated" subterranean bunker: a former oil tycoon (Michael Shannon), who spends his days drafting a self-exculpatory autobiography; his wife (Tilda Swinton), a former ballerina who claims to have performed with the Bolshoi; and their son (George MacKay), who has never known life beyond the walls of their sanctuary, and entertains himself by building models of what life might be like outside it.

They are cared for by various servants and spend their days in idle luxury, occasionally performing musical numbers – but not very competently: one dance scene is "so comically bad that I only hope (and pray) that it was intentional".

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

'Sharp as sushi knives'

The action "jolts forward" when an outsider (Moses Ingram) somehow enters the bunker, said Danny Leigh in the Financial Times. The cast – MacKay in particular – are "sharp as sushi knives" and it all looks superb.

But sadly "The End" is not the "uncompromising masterpiece" it aspires to be, said Wendy Ide in The Observer. Oppenheimer's decision to frame a "story of guilt, grief, eco-disaster and the unimaginable cost of privilege" as a musical falls flat: put simply, its songs "just aren't very good". And though the film has moments of brilliance, it is too long and "catastrophically self-indulgent". What is really "frustrating", however, is just "how close it comes to greatness".