Things are changing in the entertainment industry. COVID-19 has changed the way the world consumes movies. Over the past month, we’ve begun to see some new releases open in limited theater capacities while others continue to be held back because of a world that can’t currently create a literal “blockbuster.” It presents a bit of a challenge for us with The Film Board in trying to select movies that are globally available to both our hosts as well as our audience. Different titles are popping up in different places and different ways and this month we decided to tackle a new release on Netflix, Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things. As with most Kaufman works, it weaves an impressionistic puzzle that benefits from deep conversation and multiple viewings. Multiple other shows from The Next Reel’s family of podcasts have taken swipes at spoiling Kaufman, but this is the first turn for The Film Board.

Kaufman’s movies seem like the perfect subject for podcast fodder. He generally doesn’t like to explain what things are in his movies, preferring instead to let people have their experiences. In an IndieWire article about this film, he said recently, “I really do support anybody’s interpretation.” So we’re going to take a shot at it. On this show, Steve Sarmento, Tommy Metz III, and Justin "JJ" Jaeger bring their most creative interpretive hats for cataloging and deciphering the myriad of references and artistic inferences portrayed in the film with the purpose of piecing together this stage where nothing is quite what it seems.

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