When You Finish Saving the World

MOVIE #1,246 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 11.21.23 This is a movie about how Julianne Moore has severe emotional problems and how Finn Wolfhard is just a normal teenager. Every little interaction between this mother and son pair — from the opening moments up until the hard cut ending — is so painful, but not in a way that seems grounded in reality. It's like a parody of passive aggressive behavior, and I get that on some level this is what they're going for (in terms of the characters being caricatures of real people) but it's a slog. The worst part of this movie is that while Wolfhard is a dope, he's so obviously well-meaning and lovable (in his own stupid way). What’s his biggest crime? That he really loves music? And he's supposed to be, what, 16 or 17 years old in this? Jesus. Cut him some slack! He could be much MUCH worse. This isn’t a horrible film, just extremely misguided.

This is actor Jesse Eisenberg’s feature directorial debut (which he wrote based on an audio drama he created). You definitely get the feeling like he’s going for something along the lines of the familial dramedy of The Squid and the Whale, but it falls flat. There were a few things I did enjoy, though, like how a repeating synth line in the soundtrack ended up being the backdrop for the final original song we hear Wolfhard play, a legitimately cool piece of filmmaking. And while this is far too short on comedy, the final scene at the high school where he gets shit on for saying, excitedly, to his crush, “you can be political and make money too!” is pretty good. What it boils down to is that I liked his character and how it was written, but not necessarily his performance (which didn't feel naturalistic), and how I felt the EXACT opposite about Moore, who is doing her absolute best with a poorly constructed character. In fact, she is so weird and over-the-top horrible that it borders on being interesting.

In closing, I just want to say that this is the best unintentional parody of a Jeffrey Lewis song I’ve ever heard…

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,245 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,247 ⫸

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When You Finish Saving the World is a 2022 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg in his feature directorial debut. The film is based on Eisenberg's 2020 audio drama of the same name. Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard star as a mother and son who navigate their contentious relationship while trying to connect with other people. Jay O. Sanders, Alisha Boe, Billy Bryk, and Eleonore Hendricks also star. The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and was released by A24 to generally positive reviews. It was released on January 20, 2022.