It was only a matter of time (literally) that films made during the pandemic, or about the pandemic – however loose – would find their way onto our screens. How It Ends, the new film from directing duo Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones (who are also married to one another) is one of these films, shot during the early days of the pandemic.
It’s the last day on earth as an asteroid is hours away from striking the planet and putting us all out of our misery. We follow the final 24 hours in Los Angeles through Liza (Lister-Jones), as she tries to find some meaning and closure to her life with the help of being shadowed by her younger-self (Cailee Spaeny).
They spend the day walking through L.A. and figuring out how to spend their final hours on earth. This mainly comes through finding closure in their relationships with friends and family, even those that they are not on good terms with such as her own father (Bradley Whitford) and mother (Helen Hunt). She seeks out comfort in some old friendships that were left on a sour note such as a character played by Olivia Wilde. Then there are more innocent and random appearances by neighbors played by Bobby Lee or Fred Armisen as well as a run-in with old flames, some beloved (Logan Marshall Green), some less so (Lamorne Morris). Yet it’s the cameo from Sharon Van Etten that ends up quietly stealing the entire show.
Wein and Lister-Jones do a lot with a little, with the fact that they were able to make a movie happen under tough circumstances. Themes such as forgiveness, redemption, and coming to terms with who you have their time of day here, even if the warm messaging doesn’t always land as strongly as intended. But you get a sense of their headspace while making the film, doing a lot of the introspective thinking that we all did while we were stuck inside our homes living out this strange new reality.
At times the film ultimately feels more like a whose going to appear next crew of cameos waiting to happen. While I would be lying if I didn’t enjoy awaiting to see what famous face would appear on screen next but it also did make the film feel like two separate entities, not quite merging to a fully-realized whole.
But in a way How It Ends will end up being an odd charming quirky time capsule of a dark depressing period in all of our lives and all things considered, that’s more than ok.
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