Film Review: Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2024)
If I were to judge Romanian director Radu Judeโs state of mind based solely on Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Iโd say heโs one pissed-off dude who has exactly zero effs left to give. Thatโs not to say his latest film is brimming with anger or mean-spiritedness (which it isn’t), but this absurdist minor masterpiece mixes a razor-sharp critique of late-stage capitalism and the mistreatment of working people everywhere in such a way that itโs plain to see that Jude has no interest in playing by anyoneโs rules.
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the Worldย is a sweeping epic anchored in working-class frustration and bourgeois hypocrisy, yet set free from any cinematic constraints its filmmaker chooses to ignore. This freedom evokes the early days of Godard and the French New Wave, making it a film easily admired by many and just as easily misunderstood by many more.
As an anti-capitalist filmmaker, Jude has proven himself at the top of his game, but his film is surprisingly free of overt politics โ at least in the way American filmgoers might expect. Shrouded political agitation certainly oozes from each scene, but Jude is much too clever for sloganeering or soapboxing. Instead, he opts to depict the absurdity of capitalism through the eyes of an overworked workplace safety film casting director named Angela (a vivaciously aloof and unruly Ilinca Manolache), who moonlights as a right-wing misogynist bald man on TikTok. Thatโs right, in her spare time, Angela poses as a right-wing misogynist bald man on TikTok, and I love it.
Adding to Judeโs unique vision of collapsing economic systems are the frequent and seemingly unrelated lapses into scenes from an obscure 1982 Romanian film called Angela merge mai departe (Angela Moves On in English). In these interludes, the titular character (played by Dorina Lazฤr) drives a taxi around Bucharest, pondering the meaning of life and love in the โmodernโ world. How it all ties into the story of our Angela, I’ll leave for you to find out for yourself. But suffice it to say, Jude once again proves his cleverness in darkly comedic ways and even manages to use universally panned filmmaker Uwe Boll (as himself) to prove a point about artistic vision.
The real prize, though, comes at the end of the film when we see both the results of Angelaโs casting endeavors and a thorough representation of the working class getting screwed over right before our eyes. In this extended sequence, a family poses in front of a factory, eager to take part in a video extolling the virtues of workplace safety, only to be marginalized and forgotten in real time.
Watch as their demeanors turn from pride to doubt, and then to complete and total dejection as their lives and hardships are exploited by rich pigs and then discarded as if they donโt even exist. Itโs brilliant, itโs poignant, itโs heartbreaking, and strangely, itโs also tragically hilarious in the darkest sense possible. Donโt let the nearly three-hour runtime intimidate you. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the Worldย is a must-see for anyone who’s sick and tired of being pushed around.
