How It Ends - SPOILER-FREE Review | Sundance 2021
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Directed by: Daryl Wein, Zoe Lister-Jones
Written by: Zoe Lister-Jones, Daryl Wein
Starring: Zoe Lister-Jones, Cailee Spaeny, Olivia Wilde, Fred Armisen, Helen Hunt, Lamorne Morris
Runtime: 82 min
Synopsis: On the day an asteroid is scheduled to obliterate Earth, freewheeling Liza (Zoe Lister-Jones) scores an invite to one last wild gathering before it all goes down. Making it to the party won’t be easy, though, after her car is unceremoniously stolen, and the clock is ticking on her plan to tie up loose ends with friends and family. With a little help from her whimsical younger self (Cailee Spaeny), Liza embarks on a journey by foot across Los Angeles as she seeks to make peace with her regrets—and find the right company for those last few hours.
After a day with the emotionally overwhelming CODA, a disappointing Human Factors, and a divisive Cryptozoo, I was incredibly excited to end my day with a light, straightforward, funny little take on a silly yet intriguing premise. I got exactly what I was hoping for. A harmless series of entertaining interactions and interesting soul-searching moments featuring the two versions of the main character. Despite its repetitiveness and formulaic structure, I was never uninvested in the story due to the short runtime and mainly because of the two central, phenomenal performances.
Zoe Lister-Jones and Cailee Spaeny are brilliant together, forming an aura of pure enjoyment and putting a smile on every viewers’ face. Their whimsical chemistry elevates the entire film, but it’s not just fun and laugher. Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein dive deep into the essence of Liza through heartfelt conversations and heavy debates about so many things that everyone regrets doing in their own lives but never think of making amends. From forgiving family and friends’ mistakes to accepting our own missteps and flaws, addressing unresolved personal issues on the last day on Earth should not be something people need to do, but something that should have already been done way before this final day.
Shot during the pandemic, watching a whole movie filmed in exteriors sort of works like a breath of fresh air. Some people might dislike the dozens of celebrity cameos that contribute to sketch after sketch, but I defend that these scenes always serve a certain purpose, developing the protagonist a bit more across each of these sequences. As I wrote above, the cyclic nature of the film drags down some portions of its portions, especially the never-ending wandering around, which becomes a tad boring. Shoutout to Ryan Miller’s score, though. It’s one of the most entertaining aspects of the whole thing.
Final Thoughts
How It Ends is an inoffensive, light, entertaining character-study that ultimately accomplishes its goal of being a fun introspection on the protagonist’s life. With the use of a generic plot device, Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones create a simple yet repetitive narrative featuring dozens of famous cameos in a non-stop sequence of walking in the middle of an empty street until a new character shows up to offer yet another funny moment. Nevertheless, it contains more heart and soul than what’s at the surface. Lister-Jones and Cailee Spaeny carry and elevate the entire movie on their shoulders, delivering two impressive performances that I just couldn’t take my eyes off. Despite the obvious tendency to be just an amusing, innocent film, the main character is someone everyone can relate to, which definitely makes the movie much more compelling. Doing something that people regret later is an inevitability of life, but making amends with it shouldn’t be left to an extreme chance or to the very last moment when everything is about to end… and this is a message I can get behind.
