About Endlessness (2021)

By: Mike Ward on Thursday, May 06

NR Running Time: 78 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

If you know Roy Andersson, About Endlessness is a movie you have wanted to see for a very long time.
For adventurous moviegoers, Andersson’s film, comprised of 31 individual, largely disconnected vignettes, will not only pique people’s interest, but it becomes a rather engrossing, unpredictable, and hypnotic movie experience.
The one-take, static camera framing of each scene gives you an eyewitness take on humorous, dramatic, tragic, surreal, and absurd moments which appear to not connect, until the broader vision of the film comes into focus.

NO

If you are someone who does not often allow yourself to venture into experimental or “arthouse cinema,” About Endlessness is probably something you will loss patience with rather quickly.
Errs on the side of somber and melancholy, the comedic flourishes may not come as frequently as some viewers may hope.
In offering 31 largely disconnected vignettes, the insight Andersson aims for, the commentary on human existence, may not come together in a meaningful way for some viewers.

OUR REVIEW

Anyone familiar with the work of Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson is likely reading this review. Those who are not, may have stumbled into this review by mistake, or they somehow found themselves interested in viewing About Endlessness and are either curious in Andersson’s unique storytelling approach, or have viewed the film and are either confused or a big fan of what they have experienced.

No matter what brought you here…welcome.

About Endlessness is a movie that defies categorization. The structure adheres to a vignette/isolated scene structure common with the 21st century output of the acclaimed filmmaker. By the end of 78 minutes, you will have observed 31 scenes, with only a handful connected by one recurring character or theme. A narrator, representing an omniscient voice, sets up most scenes with a similar cadence of introducing a man or a woman who will experience something.

The film’s purpose is summed up, at least in part, late in the film. Reading from a textbook, a high school student tells his female friend about thermodynamics. He discusses that energy and matter defy destruction and that people’s energy is never-ending, or “endless.” She responds by twirling her hair and tossing in some “Uh-huh’s,” her mind perhaps elsewhere.

At times, About Endlessness feels absurdist, experimental. This is not a movie that will play one frame at the massive multiplex downtown. You have to seek this one out, through at-home VOD viewing, or through a Virtual VOD release, where tickets can be purchased for at-home viewing, while also supporting arthouse cinema houses and independent theaters that have given Andersson’s films a home in the past.

Those 31 scenes are shot in a static, singular take. Andersson positions a camera and allows the sequences to simply unfold. Nearly every scene is grounded in a realistic setting, save one sequence where a couple floats among the clouds, above the ruins of a bombed-out city.

Watching About Endlessness, one wants to find the through-line, find a way to determine how these seemingly random scenes fit together. The character who reoccurs a handful of times is that of a priest (Martin Serner). In numerous scenes, he seeks help from different professionals as he has come to the realization that he has lost his faith. He goes from desperation to tearful begging to demanding to understand what is happening to him. Though played melodramatically, Andersson taps into real emotion: If we have given our life over to something we believe in, and that belief wavers - what meaning has our life truly had?

And perhaps that is where the movie earns its acclaim. What emerges, from one scene to the next, is that many of these situations directly speak to the viewer personally, albeit realistically or metaphorically.

There’s a jealous man (Jan-Eje Ferling), seething over being ignored by a former classmate. He breaks the fourth wall to voice how upset he is by the snub. Yet, he knows virtually everything about the man, and we begin to see he is consumed with not mattering to this individual. Elsewhere, a father stops to tie his daughter’s shoe in a massive rainstorm. A car breaks down on a country road, with not a soul around to help the driver repair it.

Other moments present as fantastical. Adolf Hitler’s final moments in a bunker are imagined. A dentist walks out on a fearful patient who screams at the mere sound of a drill. A man clutches his daughter and cries out in anguish, following what appears to be her murder.

The unexpected nature of the film is both a blessing and I suppose something of a curse. We know the scene will end – we just do not know when, or what may be coming next. If you engage with the premise and approach, this is an easy watch, one of the more accessible films Andersson has made.

Full disclosure, I was hooked from the opening moments to the last. However, this is a film that can be hard to invest in. For many, these randomized moments will have no through-line, seemingly no point. Even worse, some may find the film to be meaningless altogether.

And therein lies some of the beauty Andersson has created. Perspective is a reoccurring theme in many of these vignettes and what one person finds meaningless, another may find themselves brought to tears.

I found About Endlessness to live and soar in the moments I could personally relate to. There were many. And yet, by the end, as a man realizes his car could not have broken down at a worse time or in a worse place, I think back to the floating couple, finding peace and comfort rising above the ruins smoldering below.

There is a beauty in that moment, that silence, that is hard to shake. And About Endlessness, in totality, reminds us that there are far more ways we are connected through shared experiences, than what we feel when isolated and continually apart from each other.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Martin Serner, Jan-Eje Ferling, Magnus Wallgren, Tatiana Delauney, Bengt Bergius, Thore Flygel, Anja Broms, Jessica Louthander (narration).

Director: Roy Andersson
Written by: Roy Andersson
Release Date: April 30, 2021
Magnolia Pictures

If you know Roy Andersson, About Endlessness is a movie you have wanted to see for a very long time.

For adventurous moviegoers, Andersson’s film, comprised of 31 individual, largely disconnected vignettes, will not only pique people’s interest, but it becomes a rather engrossing, unpredictable, and hypnotic movie experience.

The one-take, static camera framing of each scene gives you an eyewitness take on humorous, dramatic, tragic, surreal, and absurd moments which appear to not connect, until the broader vision of the film comes into focus.

If you are someone who does not often allow yourself to venture into experimental or “arthouse cinema,” About Endlessness is probably something you will loss patience with rather quickly.

Errs on the side of somber and melancholy, the comedic flourishes may not come as frequently as some viewers may hope.

In offering 31 largely disconnected vignettes, the insight Andersson aims for, the commentary on human existence, may not come together in a meaningful way for some viewers.