The September release of Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking Of Ending Things” has left audiences scratching their heads (I’m still scratching mine), but the hypnotic allegory that requires multiple watches turns out to be quite popular with awards juries this time of the year. For her supporting turn as Jesse Plemons’s more-than-strange mother, Toni Collette has received nominations as Best Supporting Actress by the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, the Indiana Film Journalists Association and the North Carolina Film Critics Association. Actors Jessie Buckley and Plemons have both received Gotham Award nominations as Best Actor and Actress, respectively, and Kaufman’s screenplay has been named the best of the year by the Florida Film Critics Circle Awards.

“I’m Thinking of Ending Things” – or as I’d like to call it “I’m Beginning to Understand Things” – has been on Netflix since last Friday, and I’m sure it has given the majority of us everything from a headscratch to a headache :-) I had a hard time following the story, even when it was told in a linear way, but I lost it once they arrived at the parent’s house. It definately helps to read more about the book – or the book itself – to get hold of what Charlie Kaufman was telling us with his wild, difficult and personally unsatisfying film. The actors have been a highlight though, all four actors were marvelous. Screencaptures from the film, as well as a batch of new posters, have been added to the photo gallery. Many many thanks to Jessie Buckley Fan for the generous contribution of the screencaptures, it’s very appreciated. Please make sure to give Jessie’s fansite a visit, she’s definately one rising star! Enjoy the captures.

For today’s Netflix release of Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”, Backstage Magazine blesses us with a cover story on Toni Collete’s ever-fascinating career, accompanied by a fantastic new editorial: Let’s talk about Toni Collette’s face. Few actors working today have such exacting control over their varied expressions, nor such a distinct capability to reflect every emotion under the sun. But Collette has long proven that in matters of performance, she can often do what others can’t. Who else can claim, for instance, to have their visage embossed on enamel pins decorating film buffs’ backpacks, caps, and collars? (More than just a meme, her mama wolf–like snarl over the dinner table in “Hereditary” is a popular kitsch item in this writer’s Brooklyn neighborhood.) But beyond that horror flick’s wildfire of contorted grief and rage, Collette is a master at capturing all manner of emotions: frenetic shock and joy (her toothy smile and side-eyed tongue bite in “Muriel’s Wedding”), awe and heartbreak (her wide-eyed gasp and quivering chin in “The Sixth Sense”), no-bullshit world-weariness (her furrowed brow and hard-lined jaw on “Unbelievable”), airheaded self-righteousness (her pursed lips and unmoving brow in “Knives Out”), and now, in Charlie Kaufman’s new film “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” violent neuroticism and unsparing maternal attachment. That’s not to mention her uncanny embodiment of various split personalities on “United States of Tara,” a feat that earned her an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the series’ first season. The list truly goes on and on. You can read the complete article over at Backstage Magazine.

Reviews for Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” have been lifted a week ahead of its Netflix premiere. As of today, the surreal horror thriller sits comfortably at a 90% rating at Rotten Tomatoes with praises across the board for its story and acting. Below is a selection of spoiler-free bits from some of the recent reviews. Additionally, new production stills and a press junket interview with Toni Collette have been added to the archives.

The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney (August 27, 2020)
Toni Collette and David Thewlis, both riveting. The tragic grandeur of [Plemons’] performance and the aching burden of Jake’s secrets creep up on you, just like the chilly intimacy, the confronting stillness of the visuals by Żal, the gifted Polish cinematographer who shot Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida and Cold War. I’m Thinking of Ending Things may ultimately withhold as much as it divulges, remaining open to interpretation, but like the thought lodged in Lucy’s head, it lingers.

Parade, Neil Pond (August 27, 2020)
Plemons, so good in so many things—from TV’s Fargo and Breaking Bad to movies like The Irishman and Game Night—has a boyish face that looks like it was made for hiding something else, probably something devious and unsavory, which serves him well here. Buckley, so hugely impressive as a country singer in the movie Wild Rose (2018) and on HBO’s Chernobyl, is about to wow you again in the new season of Fargo. Already acclaimed as one the most promising young actors in her native Ireland, she plays Jake’s girlfriend (unnamed in the novel) as if Lucy is as confused and clueless as we are. And Collette and Thewlis—you can’t take your eyes off them as they create a three-ring circus of master-class crazy, pulling things into a Twilight Zone-ish madhouse swirl of delirium.

Entertainment Weekly, Leah Greenblatt (August 27, 2020)
Buckley and Plemons are left to carry that water for much of I’m Thinking’s 134-minute runtime, and they’re both fantastically game, infusing the movie’s heady concepts with a naturalism that borders on heroic. Their job, they seem to know, is not to be actors so much as ambassadors to this planet: prisms refracting all the strange marvels contained in Kaufman’s great, jittery brain. In moments that portal is genuinely thrilling, but it can be exhausting, too; like being set down and left to wander, without a compass or a map, in the center of someone else’s dream.

The Chicago Tribune, Michael Phillips (August 27, 2020)
Kaufman’s latest comes to Netflix Sept. 4. (It’ll play a theatrical run in Chicago starting Friday at the Landmark Century Centre.) Before writing about it, I went back and revisited certain scenes near the end of this very free adaptation of Iain Reid’s novel. I wanted to see if I thought I saw what I thought I saw. You’ll know what I mean if you see it, too.

Netflix has released the official trailer for the upcoming film, and there’s no shortage of bizarre moments, from a very wet dog to Toni Collette going full United States of Tara in the role of an overbearing mother to an all-knowing fast food employee. Is there anything this movie doesn’t have? Written and directed by Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), I’m Thinking of Ending Things stars Jessie Buckley as a young woman who takes a road trip with her boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) to his family farm. Buckley’s character is already hesitant about the relationship — as the title suggests, she’s thinking of ending things — but when a snowstorm leaves her trapped with her boyfriend’s quirky parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis), she begins to question everything she knows about herself and the world around her. Netflix’s synopsis may make the film sound like a typical family dramedy, but the trailer suggests that I’m Thinking of Ending Things is anything but fun. Not only is Buckley’s character stuck with a boyfriend she’s unsure about; she’s also stuck with his out-there parents in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. One interaction seems to sum up Buckley’s experience best. “Jake has told us so much about you,” his mother tells her upon their arrival. “He’s told me so much about you, too,” replies Buckley. “And you came anyway?!” asks Collette with a high-pitched laugh. Creepy. I’m Thinking of Ending Things, based on Ian Reid’s 2016 novel of the same name, is one of Netflix’s highest-profile releases of the year. With its fall premiere date, the drama is sure to pick up awards buzz (assuming that awards season still happens) in the weeks to follow. I’m Thinking of Ending Things premieres Friday, September 4 on Netflix. Watch the official trailer above.

Charlie Kaufman always takes his viewer on a ride, but I’m Thinking of Ending Things — his first live-action film in more than a decade — raises his obsession with subjective experience to bracing new levels. “I don’t set out to do a mindf—,” the Oscar-winning filmmaker says. “I’m not setting out to do something that ‘tops’ some sort of brainteaser I might have done before. But there’s no question that I’m trying to build on the stuff that I’ve already done.” Indeed, fans of the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind scribe and Synecdoche, New York director should pick up traces of his past work here. Ending Things begins as a sort of moody couple’s road trip, in which Jake (Jesse Plemons) and his girlfriend (Jessie Buckley) drive out to his (slightly haunted) childhood home for her to meet his parents (David Thewlis and Toni Collette). On the way there, the sense slowly builds that things aren’t quite what they seem; upon arrival, the pair are thrust in directions that bend the laws of reality, memory, and love. “Loneliness and hopelessness and regret — these are things that are part of the fabric of this film,” Kaufman says. The complete article can be read over at Entertainment Weekly.