Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World: Review

7th May 2024

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World Review. By Christopher Patterson.

An Unusual, Boring, and Generally Half-Heard Attempt at Something Beyond the Film

Right from the jump, this film hits you with cardboard. No, literary. After this, we see the character Angela wake up in a monotonous opening. This will become a key element of the issue here. Despite its unique, somewhat clever, and experimental ideas, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World undermines them with excessive bluntness and indulgence. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World attempts to present a variety of styles and themes to the table in a unique way but fails to effectively integrate them coherently into the film. It bears a resemblance to an experimental student film project, albeit with a more robust budget. It’s respectable, yet it’s too indulgent and weak to achieve even a hint of the monolithic nature it aims for.

Variety. That is a way to understand how this film builds itself. Almost every shot here feels like a bold but not paid-off choice. For instance, we will have numerous car shots in the opening of characters driving in their cars, and it takes on a nice and unique style in certain shots. It’s clear that so much attention to detail is there. Furthermore, the film seamlessly transitions from black and white to colour, showcasing unique stylistic choices in both formats in a way that is almost referential. Even more interestingly, the cameras used in the film feel quite different and successfully match the tone they aim for. Despite all of this, the film appears to prioritise the style of these agonising shots over any narrative or plot-related elements.

The main thing holding this all back is the overwhelming sense of indulgence and detail, which feels utterly pointless throughout. One can toss a bird and a cat into the air and attempt a lot but accomplish little, except for interpretation. If I had to pick a way to describe it here, it would be the Euphoria effect. Specifically surrounding the show Euphoria. Euphoria‘s use of prioritising visuals over everything else. Lights, camera, and visuals. And that’s a wrap. The visuals effectively overshadow everything else in the film in both their indulgence and the amount of time put into them over anything else, it seems. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World tries to balance both story and nice direction but ultimately fails due to its excessive focus on how a shot looks rather than the actual film.

The acting here is generally lackluster. While a film doesn’t have to have over-the-top acting, it can at least rely on the brilliant use of more quiet and interesting performances. In this case, the performances are merely ordinary, lacking any exceptional elements. The acting isn’t typical; it’s merely forced. No actor or actress ever stands out and brings nothing to the table.

Lights. Camera. Radu Jude’s direction, while interesting, often falls short of expectations. And cut. Despite the film’s occasional attempts at interesting shots, it ultimately fails to impress. Long shots of a character simply driving often leave a feeling of pure emptiness, but not in the intended way. It feels like a director is aiming for more than what is on the paper. Basic ideas guide a dull script in the wrong direction. It attempts to make something out of nothing, since the shot itself feels poorly put together and has an almost lifeless feel. While intention may have been behind this, it only feels pretentious and misses so much of how shots like that could work. That’s a nice way of summarising the direction here. The concepts are usually dull, and they lack any distinctiveness or true style.

This work, in my opinion, best fits into the category of cramming too many ideas into a small space. It’s a work that tries to show off so much, so loudly, but does so little. It feels as though most of it hides this behind nice but dull visuals and a decent but, at other times, tedious story. Though behind this veil it keeps, nothing is inside the box. In some ways, it appears pretentious and dull. Attempting to innovate without adding anything new is a common practice, not only a century ago but also as shown here.

VERDICT

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World disappoints, with less to say and more to show off. While show-not-tell is certainly a great feature, here, all it shows is a bunch of nothing, albeit a near-unique nothing.

2/5

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