Telluride 2024: First Reactions to Joshua Oppenheimer’s THE END
Courtesy NEON
The Telluride Film Festival got underway yesterday, and reactions to some of the highly-anticipated world premieres are starting to arrive.
In Joshua Oppenheimer’s post-apocalyptic story THE END, a wealthy family, living underground in a palatial bunker, goes through its daily motions. Mother (Tilda Swinton), Father (Michael Shannon) and their 20-year-old son (George MacKay)—who has never seen the outside world—read, redecorate the rooms, swim laps and keep up appearances, even with no one looking. They’ve survived the destruction of the civilized world—a crime in which Father played a key role—and have been able to avoid contemplating the damage they’ve done. And then, a stranger arrives.
How can they express their feelings, hidden underground? They sing. What? Oppenheimer (whose films ACT OF KILLING and LOOK OF SILENCE revolutionized the documentary form) has created a Golden Age musical for an unthinkable era, a time not so different from ours.
The film world premiered today at the Telluride Film Festival, and is slated to screen at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. NEON has not yet set a US theatrical launch date.
Early word on THE END is mixed. Here are some first reactions:
