The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview
September 10, 2020/ 98 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda are joined by critic Amy Nicholson to argue about Charlie Kaufman's Netflix film 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things,' then Sean sits down with Kaufman and novelist Ian Reid.
9 films across 2 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Charlie Kaufman and ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’with Amy Nicholson
The main event: Kaufman's adaptation of Ian Reid's novel, dropped on Netflix. The table splits over whether to solve it as a puzzle or, as Amy argues, just let it wash over you like a moving painting, and over whether Jessie Buckley's character is a real woman or a projection of the old man's regrets.
The Spike Jonze breakout Sean calls one of his favorite movies of the last 50 years, and his own gateway into deconstructing a text.
Amanda's top-five movie about making movies; she saw it in college and it taught her how far you can push a piece of writing.
The Michel Gondry collaboration where, as Amy puts it, Kaufman's cynicism and Gondry's romanticism fight in the soul of the film. Also cited as the source of Kaufman's manic-pixie problem.
His directorial debut and Amy's top-two film of all time. She compares it to Pennies from Heaven and saw it on Thanksgiving with her family.
The stop-motion film he co-directed from his own radio play; Kaufman doesn't fully count it as one of his movies. Every character but two shares David Thewlis's voice.
Brought up for Patricia Arquette's character as another Kaufman lead built around public performance.
In conversation
Kaufman says he went looking for something to adapt to improve his odds of getting a film financed, and Amazon recommended Reid's book. He explains changing the ending to give the woman real agency and resistance, and calls the film his likely swan song, his first movie made since 2008.
Reid's last-great-thing pick: he loves both Michel Faber's novel and Jonathan Glazer's film precisely because they're so different. Sean notes he profiled Glazer and never got a satisfying answer about the gap between them.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Kaufman touchstones and comparisons Pennies from HeavenA Woman Under the InfluenceThe SavagesWild RoseOklahoma!Contact
In passing TenetInterstellarThe Birth of a NationThe Ballad of Buster ScruggsRaiders of the Lost Ark
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Get a LifeThe Dana Carvey ShowBreaking BadChernobylPEN15
Books AntkindI'm Thinking of Ending Things (Ian Reid novel)Under the Skin (Michel Faber novel)For Keeps (Pauline Kael)A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (David Foster Wallace)
Podcasts UnspooledJam Session
Ads AFI ConservatoryHeinekenQuibi (Wireless)