How It Ends (2021)

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After a day with the emotionally overwhelming CODA, a disappointing Human Factors, and a divisive Cryptozoo, I was incredibly excited to end my day with a light, straightforward, funny little take on a silly yet intriguing premise. I got exactly what I was hoping for. A harmless series of entertaining interactions and interesting soul-searching moments featuring the two versions of the main character. Despite its repetitiveness and formulaic structure, I was never uninvested in the story due to the short runtime and mainly because of the two central, phenomenal performances.

Zoe Lister-Jones and Cailee Spaeny are brilliant together, forming an aura of pure enjoyment and putting a smile on every viewers’ face. Their whimsical chemistry elevates the entire film, but it’s not just fun and laugher. Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein dive deep into the essence of Liza through heartfelt conversations and heavy debates about so many things that everyone regrets doing in their own lives but never think of making amends. From forgiving family and friends’ mistakes to accepting our own missteps and flaws, addressing unresolved personal issues on the last day on Earth should not be something people need to do, but something that should have already been done way before this final day.

Shot during the pandemic, watching a whole movie filmed in exteriors sort of works like a breath of fresh air. Some people might dislike the dozens of celebrity cameos that contribute to sketch after sketch, but I defend that these scenes always serve a certain purpose, developing the protagonist a bit more across each of these sequences. As I wrote above, the cyclic nature of the film drags down some portions of its portions, especially the never-ending wandering around, which becomes a tad boring. Shoutout to Ryan Miller’s score, though. It’s one of the most entertaining aspects of the whole thing.

How It Ends is an inoffensive, light, entertaining character-study that ultimately accomplishes its goal of being a fun introspection on the protagonist’s life. With the use of a generic plot device, Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones create a simple yet repetitive narrative featuring dozens of famous cameos in a non-stop sequence of walking in the middle of an empty street until a new character shows up to offer yet another funny moment. Nevertheless, it contains more heart and soul than what’s at the surface. Lister-Jones and Cailee Spaeny carry and elevate the entire movie on their shoulders, delivering two impressive performances that I just couldn’t take my eyes off. Despite the obvious tendency to be just an amusing, innocent film, the main character is someone everyone can relate to, which definitely makes the movie much more compelling. Doing something that people regret later is an inevitability of life, but making amends with it shouldn’t be left to an extreme chance or to the very last moment when everything is about to end… and this is a message I can get behind.

Rating: B-

The quirky apocalypse comedy “How It Ends” is a witty and strangely optimistic story about a woman (Zoe Lister-Jones) who sets out to make peace with her past regrets and tie up loose ends on the very day a giant asteroid is scheduled to wipe out Earth. It’s an uplifting tale of learning to love yourself, even if it’s your last day in existence.

Liza (Lister-Jones) has been invited to an end of the world party, the final gathering with her friends before it’s all over. Before she can get in the zone, Liza decides she must make peace with everyone whom she has wrong or has caused her stress in her life so she can go out with a bang. Accompanied by the metaphysical version of her younger self (Cailee Spaeny), the two Lizas head out to complete the quest. There’s just a tiny little problem: her car has been stolen, so the pair must set off on foot.

The film has a brisk pacing that constantly introduces new characters, highlighting the strangers they encounter while walking around Los Angeles. There’s a great list of cameos that reads like a who’s who of indie L.A. artists (including Nick Kroll, Charlie Day, Whitney Cummings, Bobby Lee, Lamorne Morris, Fred Armisen, and Rob Huebel), and it’s a joy to see them riffing on everything from recyclables to massive drug consumption.

There’s an offbeat sensibility to the storytelling, like the matter of fact acceptance that there’s a huge asteroid hurting towards Earth (and which we see in the background during their jaunt around town), and the idea that one person would know so many random people in L.A.

The film has an eccentric, Miranda July type vibe that won’t appeal to everyone, but the sweetly unconventional “How It Ends” enchanted me with its kooky charms.

A refreshingly sincere movie in an age of reflexive cynicism. How it Ends is short, sweet, and while it isn't philosophically ground-breaking, it does function well as a perspective re-adjustment. I believe the movie achieved exactly what it set out to do.