The End Of Us

The current time period hardly seemed conducive to bringing to life a comedy set in the middle of a confinement yet the film written and directed by Henry Loevner, Steven Kanter finds the right tone to put our current day-to-day life at the very center of the story. After a wild breakup, two exes, Nick Boal (Ben Coleman) and Leah Russo (Alison G. Vingiano), must continue living together when California issues its stay-at-home order for COVID-19. Now they will try to move on without moving out and have to cohabitate while not shying away from each other's truths and opinions.

Through its sober direction and its approach to the consequences of the containment in the whole world, The end of Us shows us how a part of the American society had to readapt to a new way of life with a compulsory mask, the fact of respecting safety distances between each one of us and especially having to continue to live in a society which did not seem ready to take such a pandemic and whose all reference points shattered.

While most of the film prefers to focus on the difficult relationship between Nick and Leah and show the repercussions of the confinement both on their behavior but also on the way they have to relearn to live confined together when their love has totally faded. While Nick is optimistic and takes advantage of the quarantine to take care of his plant and relearn how to live, Leah is struggling to cope with the loss of her job and having to live differently. Their way of seeing the world today will finalize their separation.

It is also interesting to see how the covid 19 pandemic has influenced current cinema. Whether it is horrific thrillers (Songbird, Into the Earth) or unbridled comedies like Recovery (which you can also read our review online). In this case, we feel the will of Henry Loevner, Steven Kanter to offer us a romantic comedy in the vein of When Harry Met Sally (1989) with its dialogues which are rather researched and aim rather right. We regret however that the direction is too ordinary to really make The End of Us an irresistible and perfectly topical comedy.

The end of Us
Written and directed by Henry Loevner, Steven Kanter
Produced by Claudia Restrepo, Henry Loevner, Steven Kanter, Lovell Holder
Executive Producer: Robert Williams, Richard Alan Reid, Jonah Peretti
Starring Ben Coleman, Ali Vingiano, Derrick DeBlasis, Gadiel Del Orbe, Kate Peterman, Colin Weatherby, Caroline Kwan, Will Neff, Jesse Benjamin, Claudia Restrepo
Cinematography : Henry Loevner, Steven Kanter
Edited by Henry Loevner, Steven Kanter
Release date : March 16, 2021 (SXSW)
Running time : 91 minutes

Seen on March 17, 2021 (SXSW)

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