Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023)

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023). 2h 43m

“…and learn to stop worrying and love the bomb? Probably not, director-writer Radu Jude doesnu0026#39;t imply the unavoidable condition of our fate with his newest foray into social satire. It is rather an appraisal of this odd stage in history, where weu0026#39;ve stepped a toe into the future of work and self-expression, but our day to day has cynical commercialism flowing through its veins. Given these underpinnings, why should we expect much? Jude finds a good balance in his latest work, which is seemingly crass, yet full of class (ahah, sorry), in a narrative and visual layering that flows freely and conjures a kind of complexity thatu0026#39;s often hard to catch on film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eYou should intuit this movie is something else as soon as you see its poster. Funnily enough, itu0026#39;s one of those things that make next no sense out of context and as soon as you get the context, it seems the most obvious choice. Add to that the almost three hour runtime, the international cast, which includes Nina Hoss and Uwe Boll (really spanning the breadth of German cinema there), and you get a sense of how Judeu0026#39;s new film has a specific kind of guts to it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo whatu0026#39;s the story? Our protagonist Angela (Ilinca Manolache) is a production assistant at a Bucharest-based film company thatu0026#39;s about to shoot a public relationu0026#39;s bit for an Austrian business operating in Romania. Angelau0026#39;s job is your too typical sixteen hour shifter, that involves everything from shooting audition material, to delivering technical gear, to doing airport pick-ups. When she is depleted, the best she gets from her employers is a u0026quot;have another Red Bullu0026quot; suggestion. Itu0026#39;s a taxing, soul-sucking, u0026quot;useless jobu0026quot; as Jude called it, the kind of job whose real usefulness in the grand scheme of things is marginal. As an escape from this hellish drudge, Angela has created a social media character named u0026quot;Bobitzau0026quot;, as whom, while hidden behind a face filter, she waxes lyrically as a cuss-dripping, misogynist alpha male. And to halfway contrast, halfway enhance this image of present day Angela, Jude juxtaposes scenes from Angela Goes On (1981), a communist proletarian movie about an eponymous taxi driver and her search for a partner.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo there you go, layers. For those who have seen Babardeala cu bucluc (2021), we do not find ourselves on completely foreign territory here. The End of the World is also set in and around Bucharest and it captures the same aggressiveness thatu0026#39;s emblematic to living and, especially, driving around the Romanian capital. My main issue with it was that it took satire to the point of caricature, in a demonstrative way that detached it from reality – even from its reality. The experience in Judeu0026#39;s latest is more consistent, finding harmony in dissonance, even if it doesnu0026#39;t always make for a perfect fit.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAside from Angelau0026#39;s work-related travails, she has to deal with the impending exhumation of her grandparents, as the cemetery they were buried in had illegally annexed land to its property. Now, real-estate developers had reclaimed it and, naturally, luxury condos need some air to breathe. In what is perhaps the most straight-out comedic scene in the film, Angela meets with a representative of the developer who assures her that they are the good guys, covering not only relocation costs, but also theological approval. As she exits the building, we understand in part who Bobitza is – a representation of the number one capitalist model in Romania of the 90s, Bobby Ewing of Dallas.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis perverse, exploitative capitalism is at the core of the movie, as Angelau0026#39;s u0026quot;auditionsu0026quot; feature people who have suffered work-related accidents at the Austrian company – and the company mind-bendingly want to put-together a clip with one of these people promoting use of helmets and compliance to health and safety procedures. All the while, ignoring their own culpability. As Jude succinctly put it when asked about the vulgarity of Angelau0026#39;s alter-ego, itu0026#39;s all just part of the contrast between explicit and implicit vulgarity, the latter being the use of discretionary power at will behind the fake veneer of corporate civility. Which act is more vulgar, he asks of us.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhile there isnu0026#39;t so much going on in terms of story, almost every scene is rich in context and implications. A main cause for that is that Angela defies categorization, she is a person trying to make it, cultured, yet crude, moralistic, yet immoral, sheu0026#39;s imperfect – played perfectly by Ilinca Manolache. It really is the kind of movie you can take apart for a while, making ever changing conjectures and discovering commentary on things from historical disconnects to critical posturing. Wouldnu0026#39;t we all like to go for a round of boxing with our enemies, Uwe Boll style?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut what makes Judeu0026#39;s latest especially stand out is its defiance for traditional structure and style. The juxtaposition of two age-divergent movies, the grainy black and white present-day and the beautifully restored and coloured communist propaganda piece, the mixing of narratives between the two, the fixed, engrossing shots contrasted with the vibrant distortion of the social media clips, a fluent rhythm broken up with a multi-minute composition of memorial crosses from the side of the road, and a final forty minute shot with as much off-camera action as on-camera. Itu0026#39;s something else, really, an originality of vision thatu0026#39;s simply an experience to watch, regardless of how much you like it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAt the heart of the movie is also that tension between whatu0026#39;s proper and what isnu0026#39;t. Or, rather, between the appearance of both. What is the difference between classical music and u0026quot;maneleu0026quot; (a type of Romanian popular music)? Between the grand vision of life and society that is written of in mission statements and the grindy, noisy, repetitive reality of their manifestation? In a perfect world, Do Not Expect Too Much of The End of the World should do to the final movement of Beethovenu0026#39;s 9th what Aftersun (2022) did to Under Pressure. It should forever break it, cursing the viewer with the plight of irreversible trauma.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLike any good movie, this one will not leave you indifferent. It finds excitement in unlikely places and delivers with a kind of spastic energy thatu0026#39;s best incapsulated by its meta-world. There is a truth to it that cannot be denied, even in its moments that feel more like performance art than u0026quot;factualu0026quot; observation. Sure, itu0026#39;s not for everyone, not only because it can be uncomfortable in terms of content, but because it embraces a kind of otherness that requires some adjustment. Thatu0026#39;s one of the things we ask of movies, isnu0026#39;t it?”