Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023)
May 24, 2024 7:14 AM - Subscribe
[TRAILER] Overworked and underpaid production assistant Angela (Ilinca Manolache) is assigned to film a workplace safety video for a multinational corporation in Bucharest. When one of the interviewees makes a statement that ignites a scandal, Angela has to re-invent the story. Golden Bear award winner Radu Jude's anarchic satire is a wild and unforgettable ride through the vulgar indignities of the 21st century.
Also starring Nina Hoss, Katia Pascariu, Sofia Nicolaescu, Uwe Boll (as himself), László Miske, Ovidiu Pîrsan, Dorina Lazar, Alex M. Dascalu.
Original Romanian title Nu astepta prea mult de la sfârsitul lumii.
Written and directed by Radu Jude. Produced by Radu Jude, Adrian Sitaru, Ada Solomon. Cinematography by Marius Panduru. Edited by Cătălin Cristuțiu.
99% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (with 69 reviews).
Now streaming in the US on Mubi. Also available for digital rental on Amazon Prime, Fandango at Home, Apple TV. JustWatch lis ting.
Also starring Nina Hoss, Katia Pascariu, Sofia Nicolaescu, Uwe Boll (as himself), László Miske, Ovidiu Pîrsan, Dorina Lazar, Alex M. Dascalu.
Original Romanian title Nu astepta prea mult de la sfârsitul lumii.
Written and directed by Radu Jude. Produced by Radu Jude, Adrian Sitaru, Ada Solomon. Cinematography by Marius Panduru. Edited by Cătălin Cristuțiu.
99% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (with 69 reviews).
Now streaming in the US on Mubi. Also available for digital rental on Amazon Prime, Fandango at Home, Apple TV. JustWatch lis ting.
This review from 'Fresh Air' is terrific.
It's easy to feel overwhelmed these days — squeezed by a constantly changing economy, bombarded by the shrieking of social media, surrounded by angry people who genuinely believe that their worst instincts lead them to the truth. This is the world in 2024, yet I can't think of a single American filmmaker who's managed to capture it on-screen.posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:37 AM on May 28
I can think of a Romanian one. His name is Radu Jude, a world-class troublemaker whose rambunctious movies remind me of everyone from Jean-Luc Godard and John Waters to Lenny Bruce. His latest film, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, is a freewheeling provocation, a black-comic road picture that cannonballs into the madness of our time. Clocking in at a resolutely unboring two hours and 40 minutes, the movie crackles with brains, obscenity, political anger and jokes that had me laughing out loud.
Jude, as ever, is playful with form here. In this film, he interpolates large swaths of the 1981 Communist-era Romanian film Angela merge mai departe ("Angela Moves On"). In that film, the protagonist, also named Angela is a female cab driver who deals with sexism, male entitlement, being underpaid/undervalued, and trying to stay kind in a hostile atmosphere. The footage from 1981 slows down and pauses here and there so that you can take in the looks of pure contempt men give Angela.
Jude's Angela faces most of the same challenges, 40 years later. Things aren't really any better. Communism was exploitative and life was hard, but capitalism has only seen the vise tighten. People work harder than ever with little to show for it. The same buildings are around, in worse shape. Multinationals like the unnamed Belgian company making the workplace safety video view Romania as an exploitable pool of cheap, disempowered labor.
Angela and Angela even see their paths cross, as a now elderly Angela and her beau from the 1981 film Gyuri (both played by the same actors) got married and have a son who was injured in a workplace accident while working for the company paying to produce the video Angela's company is working on. The two women are sort of instantly fond of each other, see their conection. But Jude doesn't ever keep things simple. The older Angela was screwed over by the system, but she's no hero. She's casually racist about Roma people. And Gyuri is, as Angela says later "completely Looney Tunes," reciting old poetry like he's on stage, and effusively praising Viktor Orbán. Even their son, Ovidiu, is no clear-cut martyr, complaining about a song on the radio denouncing corruption by insisting the politician referenced in the song (who went to prison) was just misunderstood.
Jude never ever gives you a clean line on anything. The result is that the world of this film bubbles and teems with life, with ugliness and hostility, with little moments of unexpected empathy and humanity, and with dark humor.
(One of the best throwaway jokes is that, in the big video shoot scene, someone off-handedly compares the importance of a helmet in an industrial workplace to wearing masks during COVID. The film is set in 2021, and Ovidiu was in a coma for over a year. He replies, "What 'COVID'?" and positively no one opts to touch that subject.)
In the end, Jude gives us a Romania that was shitty in 1981, promised a lot of things with capitalism, technological advances, and global investment, but only seems to have gotten more cruel and more exploitative.
Angela makes her raunchy TikTok videos in the character of Andrew Tate-loving, Putin-praising Bobița that she intends as satire, but one of her fellow crew members points out that, things as they are, people may just take those at face value.
Even her screams of despair, rendered via shitpost videos, come to nothing.
This is a great, great film.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:26 AM on May 28
Jude's Angela faces most of the same challenges, 40 years later. Things aren't really any better. Communism was exploitative and life was hard, but capitalism has only seen the vise tighten. People work harder than ever with little to show for it. The same buildings are around, in worse shape. Multinationals like the unnamed Belgian company making the workplace safety video view Romania as an exploitable pool of cheap, disempowered labor.
Angela and Angela even see their paths cross, as a now elderly Angela and her beau from the 1981 film Gyuri (both played by the same actors) got married and have a son who was injured in a workplace accident while working for the company paying to produce the video Angela's company is working on. The two women are sort of instantly fond of each other, see their conection. But Jude doesn't ever keep things simple. The older Angela was screwed over by the system, but she's no hero. She's casually racist about Roma people. And Gyuri is, as Angela says later "completely Looney Tunes," reciting old poetry like he's on stage, and effusively praising Viktor Orbán. Even their son, Ovidiu, is no clear-cut martyr, complaining about a song on the radio denouncing corruption by insisting the politician referenced in the song (who went to prison) was just misunderstood.
Jude never ever gives you a clean line on anything. The result is that the world of this film bubbles and teems with life, with ugliness and hostility, with little moments of unexpected empathy and humanity, and with dark humor.
(One of the best throwaway jokes is that, in the big video shoot scene, someone off-handedly compares the importance of a helmet in an industrial workplace to wearing masks during COVID. The film is set in 2021, and Ovidiu was in a coma for over a year. He replies, "What 'COVID'?" and positively no one opts to touch that subject.)
In the end, Jude gives us a Romania that was shitty in 1981, promised a lot of things with capitalism, technological advances, and global investment, but only seems to have gotten more cruel and more exploitative.
Angela makes her raunchy TikTok videos in the character of Andrew Tate-loving, Putin-praising Bobița that she intends as satire, but one of her fellow crew members points out that, things as they are, people may just take those at face value.
Even her screams of despair, rendered via shitpost videos, come to nothing.
This is a great, great film.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:26 AM on May 28
Angela: "I don't think I can live much longer like this!"
Aging doorman: "That's what you think."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:27 AM on May 28
Aging doorman: "That's what you think."
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:27 AM on May 28
Sorry to get stuck on this one, but one more thing I want to mention: in the middle of this film about all of the different things that are killing people in Romania (mostly figuratively, but also literally in many cases) there is an anecdote told about the "death road" a 250 km long, often single lane road with more than 600 crosses commemorating traffic fatalities. After Angela recounts this story, there is then a montage of hundreds of these crosses, with no music or commentary.
The message is clear.
Everybody knows what is killing Romania. They will be sad about it. They will mark it. But they will not change anything.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:28 AM on May 28 [2 favorites]
The message is clear.
Everybody knows what is killing Romania. They will be sad about it. They will mark it. But they will not change anything.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:28 AM on May 28 [2 favorites]
Okay, ALSO: I really identified with the way Angela tried to have empathy for people, no matter their terrible opinions, but wouldn't nod along with bullshit.
"We can't even afford to heat the apartment in the winter anymore, because of that damn war in Ukraine."
"That war isn't related to gas prices at all. It's like fuel costs. Gas is more expensive than ever, but Shell's profits are up 500%. The war is an excuse."
I think she harshly satirized terrible takes via her Bobița character because in real life, she didn't want to tell people she thought they were stupid. She wouldn't lie or let total BS slip by unnoted, but she didn't attack people, either.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:42 AM on May 28
"We can't even afford to heat the apartment in the winter anymore, because of that damn war in Ukraine."
"That war isn't related to gas prices at all. It's like fuel costs. Gas is more expensive than ever, but Shell's profits are up 500%. The war is an excuse."
I think she harshly satirized terrible takes via her Bobița character because in real life, she didn't want to tell people she thought they were stupid. She wouldn't lie or let total BS slip by unnoted, but she didn't attack people, either.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:42 AM on May 28
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Things not only didn't get better in the last few decades, they got worse. And it feels like all you can do is lie down and take it or shitpost your way through it to let off some steam.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:23 PM on May 27 [2 favorites]