Review of I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) by Mattyice — 20 Sep 2020

I'm Thinking of Ending Things is a thoroughly unenjoyable, pretentious, and downright infuriating movie if you do not know what the film is attempting to say or go in expecting anything containing a true narrative.

I'll give the film credit for its great cinematography and editing style, as well as its neat (albeit hamfisted at points) ideas regarding perception of the world through different eyes and timeframes in one's life.

However, writer/director Charlie Kaufman works best when he combines fantastic ideas with an entertaining and/or intriguing narrative, as shown in Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine. The narrative of this film is completely absurdist yet also horrendously tedious to drag through, the dialogue is extremely inauthentic and as chi-chi as any that I've heard in any film lately, and the film is almost completely humorless and morbid at every step of the way.

I can give Kaufman some attempt of praise for pushing the creative boundaries and new ideas of film, however, he continues to sacrifice narrative, character, and sheer entertainment value, which creates grueling and punishing movie experiences I do not wish to experience again, nor reccomend to others.