Here's a half-hour interview with David Ehrlich from August last year. It's an unlisted video and came up in my alerts last week. Keep an eye out for Charlie's passionate defence of Ed Wood around 12:45, probably the highlight of the conversation.
Charlie provided a blurb for the new edition of Iain Reid's novel I'm Thinking of Ednging Things, and it looks like this:
via r/charliekaufman
(That sub calls itself "Being Charlie Kaufman" -- which is cool! -- but do note it's not affiliated with this here site)
I'm Thinking of Ending Things' Jessie Buckley is currently starring in The Lost Daughter -- directorial debut of Maggie Gyllenhaal -- and none other than our pal Charlie conducted an interview with her for the occasion. It's about half an hour long and pretty sweet!
Don't get your hopes up for news of CK's future projects, though. This one's all about Buckley.
via r/kaufman
Redditor u/evilex_8 got themselves a Tulsey Town tatto inspired by I'm Thinking of Ending Things. Observe:
Super cool. Here you can watch Charlie, Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons and Toni Collette take us throught that excruciating dinner scene in I'm Thinking of Ending Things.
The video is part of the "Scene at the Academy" series on the Oscars' official YouTube channel, which seems a bit of a backhander since the film WASN'T NOMINATED FOR ANY OSCARS.
Great video, though!
Half an hour well spent: I'm Thinking of Ending Things composer Jay Wadley on The Film Scorer podcast, where he talks about his approach to the film's score, the memory of music, and what it was like working with CK. One thing Wadley talks about at length: the music in the movie is largely meant to represent what Jake remembers (or misremembers) of tunes that he has heard--the ballet, for instance, is supposed to sound almost-but-not-quite the same as ballets you (or Jake) might have heard.
There's an audio version and Youtube version. Take yer pick!
Thanks to whitebearpr1 over on Reddit.
Awards season is a bit of a mess this year, and as far as that goes I haven't heard a lot of buzz around Ending Things, but Wikipedia tells me the film hasn't done too badly at all, all things considered. Here we go:
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards
Chicago Film Critics Association
Dublin Film Critics Circle
Florida Film Critics Circle
Gotham Independent Film Awards
indieWIRE Critics' Poll
London Film Critics Circle
National Society of Film Critics
San Diego Film Critics Society
St. Louis Film Critics Association
Not too shabby!
A.V. Club polled their contributors and put I'm Thinking of Ending Things at #7 in their best films of 2020. YAY.
7. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
It’s funny that Charlie Kaufman once lost an Oscar to Inside Out. Don’t most of his movies also plunge audiences into the mind, via magic or sci-fi or just good ol’-fashioned voice-over? I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, the third film he’s directed from one of his own ingenious scripts, has left some viewers feeling rather trapped within its oppressively interior psychodrama; it’s a disorienting nightmare reverie about a young woman who begins to lose her grip on herself during a surreal day trip to meet her boyfriend’s parents. Yet for all the slippery cerebral games Kaufman plays with his source material (including boldly abstracting the twist ending of Ian Reid’s novella), the film remains anchored to an emotional reality—the foundation of quotidian discomfort offered by a terrific Jessie Buckley, finding a personality even as the details about her character begin to shift like sand in an hourglass. She’s our guide through the dense thicket of Kaufman’s imagination: a wondrous twilight zone of existential anxieties, dream ballet, and Robert Zemeckis jokes. [A.A. Dowd] (Source)
First Cow came in at #1, followed by Nomadland, The Assistant, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, Lovers Rock, and Never Rarely Sometimes Always.
Thanks to Jeff!
indieWIRE conducted their annual poll of over 230 film critics to find the 50 best movies of 2020, and I'm Thinking of Ending Things came in at number 5! Nice.
Per tradition, IndieWire asked over 200 film critics around the world to rank their favorite films of the year. We tallied up the numbers and present the 50 highest rated titles below.
The 2020 IndieWire Critics Poll featured reviewers from major trade publications such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter as well as critics from local newspapers and websites, freelancers, and contributors on film from across Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
[...]
5. “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Cast: Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette, David Thewlis
Read IndieWire’s review: If “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” feels like both an act of self-parody for its director and also a radical departure from his previous work, that’s because it takes Kaufman’s usual fixations and turns them inside out. While this leaky snow globe of a breakup movie is yet another bizarre and ruefully hilarious trip into the rift between people, it’s not — for the first time — about someone who’s trying to cross it. On the contrary, Kaufman is now telling a story about the rift itself. (Source)
Nomadland, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, First Cow, and Lovers Rock were ahead of CK's film.
In December, EW listed their top 15 performances in film for the preceding 12 months, and Jessie Buckley's turn in Ending Things made the grade.
Jessie Buckley in I'm Thinking of Ending ThingsIt takes a special kind of performer to carry a movie like Charlie Kaufman's mind-bending psychological thriller, but Buckley does it with apparent ease. She’s the guiding light and a steady presence through the constantly shape-shifting script, flipping between long stretches of poetry recitation and scientific debate and cultural criticism but somehow always remaining coherent throughout. We'd follow her anywhere. (Well... weather permitting.) —Mary Sollosi (Source)
Well deserved.
Finally Variety brings us the shooting script for I'm Thinking of Ending Things. I don't even have to be sneaky about posting it or anything. Hooray!
Kaufman, who was also honored with Variety’s Creative Impact in Screenwriting Award at this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival, adapted the script from Iain Reid’s 2016 novel about a young woman (played in the film by Jessie Buckley and literally called “Young Woman” in the screenplay) accompanying her boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) home to meet his parents.
[...] The script is a must-read for anyone curious about Kaufman’s process. If you’ve ever wondered how he describes scenes such as the film’s pivotal dream ballet, your answers are now within reach. (Source)
I'll stick this in the Scripts/Writing section soonly. There are probably already some scripts there you haven't seen before, too.
2020 was a messed up year, but it managed to bring us some good films, and the UK's Independent says I'm Thinking of Ending Things is up there in the top 10. #6, if you want specifics.
6. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Writer-director Charlie Kaufman, once enough of an idealist to give his lovers in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind a second shot, has curdled in the intervening years. I’m Thinking of Ending Things is arguably his bleakest film – it’s also one of his best. “I’m thinking of ending things,” a young woman (Jessie Buckley) says to herself. She chews over the words, repeating them over and over again in the hope that they’ll suddenly gain the significance she was searching for.
She’s not quite sure what she wants to end. Is it her life? Her relationship with Jake (Jesse Plemons)? They’re on their first substantial trip together – a visit to his parents, out on their farm. But details start to change without warning: clothes, jobs and hobbies. Jake’s parents (Toni Colette and David Thewlis) age rapidly between scenes, as if we’re watching corpses decompose before our eyes. Kaufman has taken Ian Reid’s debut novel, published in 2016, and replaced its bait-and-switch ending with a single mood – one that’s not so much about suicidal ideation or break-ups as the black hole of emotions they have a tendency to create. Suddenly, I’m Thinking of Ending Things starts to feel like the most frightening film of the year. (Source)
Their top 3 are Shirley, Jojo Rabbit and Parasite.
The Atlantic features I'm Thinking of Eding Things at #4 in its countdown of 2020's ten best films.
4. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Charlie Kaufman’s first directorial effort in five years was a strangely perfect fit for Netflix; it’s the kind of film best viewed at midnight, alone in your home, an experience so peculiar that you might wonder if you dreamed the entire thing. Based on Iain Reid’s novel, Kaufman’s movie focuses at first on a young woman (Jessie Buckley) who is going to meet the parents of her new boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) out in the countryside for the first time. But the couple’s jaunt becomes a harrowing, dark night of the soul, as the bounds of time seem to stretch and snap, and it becomes harder to tell whether their partnership is real or imagined. In other words, it’s a Charlie Kaufman movie—a challenging viewing experience that lingers for weeks and unfolds new meaning with every rewatch. (Source)
The Nest, Lovers Rock and First Cow made up the top 3.
The Boston Society of Film Critics Winners for 2020 included 2 for I'm Thinking Ending Things! YAY.
Charlie took out Best Screenplay (runners up: Kelly Reichardt and Jonathan Raymond, First Cow), and Robert Frazen won for Best Editing (runner up: Chloe Zhao, Nomadland).
Nomadland claimed Best Film, Anthony Hopkins was Best Actor, Sidney Flanigan won Best Actress. Chloe Zhao grabbed Best Director, (runner-up: Kelly Reichardt).
Full list of winners and runners-up here.
Thanks to Nathaniel!
If you have 45 minutes to spare, use them on this I'm Thinking of Ending Things virtual roundtable discussion between Charlie Kaufman, Boots Riley, Tamara Jenkins, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Richard Linklater. Via indieWIRE and moderated by David Ehrlich, it's good stuff from start to finish.
Linklater offers CK some advice about dealing with internet commenters, Boots compares Charlie to The Smiths, Jenkins draws comparisons between Ending Things and Virginia Woolf, and everybody loves Charlie.
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