Hop Film: The End
Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon and George MacKay seek shelter from climate catastrophe in a palatial bunker in Joshua Oppenheimer's post-apocalyptic movie musical.
Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon and George MacKay seek shelter from climate catastrophe in a palatial bunker in Joshua Oppenheimer's post-apocalyptic movie musical.
In 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.
And then, a stranger (Moses Ingram) arrives, upsetting the delicate balance of their lives and forcing them to confront their complicity in the destruction of the civilized world, a crime in which Father played a key role. And occasionally, they burst into song!
Often, the music seems to serve a character's need to lie to themselves, to feel love in the face of crushing loneliness, to feel heroic in the face of evidence they are complicit in the end of the world. Oppenheimer (whose films Act of Killing and Look of Silence revolutionized the documentary form) now seeks to revolutionize the Golden Age musical. Premiering at the Telluride Film Festival, this speculative fiction film uses grand dance numbers and passionate ballads to unpack the guilt, longing and confusion of life after environmental collapse.
