Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard play mother and son in When you finish saving the world (now on Netflix), an eccentric little pseudo-satire written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, the actor who will always be remembered not only for playing Mark Zuckerberg, but for almost making him seem human. This is the directorial debut for Eisenberg, who debuted at Sundance 2022 before sinking into relative obscurity; his second effort, A real pain, was a hit at Sundance 2024 and the film garnered praise for Kieran Culkin’s performance. And therefore it is difficult not to consider When you finish the springboard towards something better, since it does not lack talents and ideas, even if they do not always come together in a satisfactory way.
WHEN YOU’RE FINISHED SAVING THE WORLD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: Is it just me, or is Ziggy’s (Wolfhard) music almost unbearable? She plays lo-fi, silly, stupid folk songs that flow with her trite feelings of adolescence, and as a firm member of Generation X, I’m tempted to say she makes Daniel Johnston sound like Mariah Carey. He speaks and sings in a rather nasal and grating manner, but a stalwart Gen-Xer should be happy that he’s actually playing a guitar and not using his mousepad as an instrument and trying to be the next big annoying DJ. Still, Ziggy livestreams his little songs to a loyal internet audience and hardly sees it as an outlet for self-expression: It’s more about counting his followers and counting the money he makes from the platform’s monetization program. , so I think not being nice to him is at least somewhat justified.
Ziggy’s parents don’t seem very interested in his music either, even more so because they don’t understand it. Her mother Evelyn (Moore) is the conscientious liberal type, a Smart Car driver who works as a director at a shelter for victims of domestic abuse; She is more than a little strident, tense and nervous. Her father Roger (Jay O. Sanders) is almost a nonentity in a house occupied by two significantly larger personalities. One day, Evelyn comes home and tries to open Ziggy’s door while he’s live streaming, and he berates her and installs an obnoxious flashing red indicator light, which is one step away from being the Kenny Rogers Roasters sign right outside. Kramer. ™s window.
Ziggy and Evelyn feel like they have nothing in common. But they actually have two: one, a sense of alienation from each other and perhaps from their peers. And two, a compulsive need to connect with a person who doesn’t seem particularly interested in your company. In Ziggy’s case, it’s a girl at school, Lila (Alisha Boe), who is very politically aware and barely tolerates Ziggy’s desperate attempts to appear smarter than him, attempts that evolve quickly. in self-indulgent bragging about all the people who watch their live streams. For Evelyn, it’s Kyle (Billy Bryk), who just moved into the shelter with his mother; Evelyn makes her way into the life of this thoughtful and well-spoken teenager who she is more than happy to help with small repair projects at the shelter and, overall, she is more like the son that Evelyn wishes she had. Ziggy tries to impress Lila at the local open mic night for socially conscious teens and Evelyn tries her best to get Kyle into a good college, but they’re both overbearing types who cling to people they don’t like them. they catch them. I’m also not sure either of them make particularly sympathetic movie protagonists.
What movies will it remind you of?: Eisenberg seems to draw inspiration from the vivid eccentricity of Noah Baumbach’s dramatic comedies such as While we are young either The squid and the whale (which notably features his breakout role as an actor).
Performance worth seeing: I’m torn by Moore’s performance. As always, his screen presence is magnetic and he ultimately finds and shares Evelyn’s goodness. But the character’s peccadilloes (vocal affectations being the most important) sometimes seem too artificial to be believable.
Memorable dialogue: Angie (Eleonore Hendricks), Kyle’s mother, talks to Evelyn at the shelter:
Angie: Kids are pure love, you know what I mean?
Evelyn (in the most unconvincing tone ever): Mm hm.
Sex and skin: None.
Our opinion: Being thankful When you finish saving the world The clocks only last 88 minutes, because if it were longer, you’d want to throw Evelyn and Ziggy into the sea. They are irritating and selfish characters. To be fair, neither of them seem to be beyond redemption; They’re not vile people, just a little too selfish, and neither of them seem interested in listening to each other. Although Eisenberg’s script makes them a little confusing and confusing, they inspire enough of a pang of empathy that we hope they find a way to lovingly connect as father and son. Wolfhard’s performance taps into a familiarly realistic tension of adolescent narcissism, and Moore shows enough self-reflection beneath Evelyn’s exaggerated, faux-sincere mannerisms to pleasantly complicate her psychology.
Outside of the efforts of the main cast, the film’s quirks never come together coherently. Somewhere in this story is a scathing mockery of upper-middle-class white liberals: one gets the sense that Evelyn has grown tired of thinking about others and has turned inward; Ziggy just wants to be knowledgeable to impress a girl who’s too clever to No see through their shit. Eisenberg seems to be aiming for comedic satire with moments of sincerity, but that’s a difficult tonal line to follow, and though he comes close, the near-miss finds the film flailing thematically. It is presented as a vignette or a short story that would work better as a novel, and its characters lack the depth and sharp wit to make them completely believable.
Our call: When you finish saving the world It is an admirable effort, but it is not entirely satisfactory. So, let’s move on to Eisenberg’s next step behind the camera. SKIP IT.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic living in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
