I don’t understand this movie. I can’t tell what the vignettes of the janitor represent and I don’t fully grasp the symbolism of the following:
- The tyre chains
- The rapid aging of Jake’s parents
- The main character’s name changing
- the main character’s changing major
- the snow (it shouldn’t be snowing in Oklahoma)
- the father’s bandage
- the childhood photograph that is both the main character and Jake
- the ice cream shop Furthermore, I don’t quite grasp what is literal and what is symbolic in each segment.
To me this seems like a movie about decision paralysis and anxiety. I see the motif of change moreso than anything else in the story and am the differential outcomes. Of course, I might just be projecting my own fears unto something I don’t understand. On further thought, I think I just don’t know what’s happening and it unnerves me as a result. For some reason I found this movie scarier than most horror movies. It might just be because of the general unnerving atmosphere and confusion. Lastly, the ending makes no sense whatsoever. I have no idea what just happened. Not even a semblance of a clue.
I might just be bad at fiction.
the snow (it shouldn’t be snowing in Oklahoma)
I used to live in Tulsa and it very much snows there, like a shit ton
Here’s what I’ve heard and I vibed with it when I watched. They’re in the janitors idle day dream, what’s the deal with the janitor? Maybe he’s getting high off the fumes he’s cleaning with, maybe it’s an intentional attempted suicide and this is the DMT dream he’s having as he’s passing away, maybe he’s just day dreaming about some young people he saw and is also just very depressed.
The names change as the janitor either loses parts of his mind or he just decides something different on a whim.
That makes sense. I wasn’t looking at Jake as the main character even though he was the only constant
I enjoyed it as a piece of experiential art. Not as rich in meaning or as coherent as his other films, but it did get a reaction out of me other than confusion or disappointment, so I enjoy it.
I don’t disagree with criticisms of it, but I do think it’s a compelling film. To me, at least
I watched this after I watched a YouTube video essay about it, and I really enjoyed it. My interpretation of the literal events have been completely shaped by the video essay, so I do believe I understand the literal plot, but I sure didn’t come up with it myself!
Here's the plot as I understand it:
The main character doesn’t exist. She’s a figment of The Janitor’s imagination as he’s dying, freezing to death in his truck in a snowstorm.
So very little of what we see for the whole movie is real, basically all of it is the hallucinations of a dying man.
Edit: Oh! I forgot to say! Jesse Plemons is The Janitor when he was young, and our main character lady was a person The Janitor saw at a bar recently, he doesn’t know her. But he’s taken her image and, in his mind, turned her into a fake girlfriend for a fake version of his young self so they can take a fake trip to meet his remembered parents.
And here’s the YouTube video. Jacob Geller’s “Dark Souls 3 is Thinking of Ending Things”:
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
you can look up and easily find a synopsis of the novel (same name) the film was adapted from.
fills in a lot of your questions.
this is a very bad movie and you don’t really need to think so hard about it.
For TIME, Stephanie Zacharek wrote: “For every moment of raw, affecting insight there are zillions of milliseconds of Kaufman’s proving what a tortured smartie he is. I’m Thinking of Ending Things must have been arduous to make, and it’s excruciatingly tedious to watch.”
this is the movie that made me grow out off charlie kaufman
i agree
I liked it. Not as a normal movie, but as a puzzle; granted, I didn’t solve the puzzle but it was still fun.
Haven’t watched “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” but from reading these comments it has similar vibes to “Linoleum” with Jim Gaffigan. At least Linoleum was nice enough to sorta give you a hint as to why everything was so bonkers throughout the movie.
