I’m curious to know what people thought of I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

[GrahamS. 803]

I almost wrote—via typo—I’m Thinking of Ending Thongs! That would have been a very different movie. 

Anyway, I read the book—which I admired in parts but overall didn’t like—about a week before I saw the movie and I’m glad I did. It gave the movie—which I liked better than the book—a framework that the movie doesn’t have as you’re first watching it. It frees you from wondering where the fuck the plot is in the movie.

I can see why this book appealed to Kaufman and the subject matter is definitely in his wheelhouse. I just wish he would partner back up with Spike Jonze or Michel Gondry or somebody. I enjoy the films he directs on a cerebral level, but they’re cerebral on a level that’s almost totally closed off from accessibility. He’s never made a film that I’ve disliked, I just think he needs a partner to pull him out of his own head.

At least the movie is periodically funny if you can get on its wavelength (the book is NOT) and the acting is great. Both the book and movie are overlong and fairly pretentious at points, but it’s worth watching if you’re a Kaufman fan/want something weird and experimental.