Alexander Ullom’s remarkable debut It Ends is an anxiety-ridden road trip that will almost certainly launch multiple careers.
It Ends might take the cake for the most misleading title of the year. The film follows four friends — all more connected by an obligation to their shared past than actual affection — going out for what will almost certainly be their last night together. The drive is marked by basic pleasantries and absurdist what-ifs until they realize they’ve been driving for a while and have yet to see their turn. They head back, only to find a dead end. Their only path is forward, barreling down a desolate road with no clear end in sight.
It’s not long before they notice that their car never runs out of gas. The members of the group, unable to sleep and never getting hungry, don’t need fuel either. Occasionally they’ll find another car abandoned, often with its odometer maxed out. Their reactions to this are varied. James (Phinehas Yoon) is certain there must be some logical means of escape and is committed to finding it, while Tyler (Mitchell Cole) gives way to nihilism more or less immediately. Day (Akira Jackson) and Fisher (Noah Toth) land somewhere in between, finding sanity and even happiness through friendship and routine but accepting they’ll never see home again.
Final destination.
The premise will inspire some obvious comparisons to Exit 8, the other trapped-on-an-endless-path title that Neon released this year. But in regards to actual execution, the two tread very little shared ground. Exit 8 is about uncovering meaning on the road to escape. It Ends tackles whether meaning can be found when escape may be impossible.
Photo Credit: Neon
Writer/director Alexander Ullom covers the full spectrum of emotion here. There’s joy, grief, and a whole lot of rage. It does not take a genius to deduce that Ullom is wrestling with many of the anxieties currently faced by Gen Z. But it’s masterfully done, leaving no stone unturned in regards to these anxieties while also never feeling meandering into the obvious or preachy. Most filmmakers go their entire careers without ever making a feature this nuanced and self-assured, so seeing Ullom do it on his first try is absolutely remarkable.
For that matter, this is a star-making effort for pretty much everyone involved. The only member of the production to even have so much as a Wikipedia page is composer Matthew Robert Cooper, meaning It Ends is almost certainly the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of some very exciting careers. Phinehas Yoon, Akira Jackson, and Noah Toth give absolutely outstanding performances, which means the attempted emotional beats never fall flat. Cinematographers Evan Draper and Jazleana Jones can make the inside of a jeep feel vast or make infinity feel claustrophobic, which means the films never starts to feel repetitive despite unchanging scenery.
Road work ahead.
The only time the script ever really stumbles in when it tries to squeeze in higher stakes. A pack of frenzied travelers here. An automotive problem there. There are a few moments where it feels like Ullom starts to doubt if the character-driven moments are enough to carry the film and tries to interject something bigger and grander.
But the sheer scale of It Ends inverts what does and does not matter, meaning the smaller moments between characters carry significantly more weight than these more quote-unquote “dramatic” elements. This is a relatively minor issue, and one that improves as time goes on.
The bottom line.
It Ends will certainly end up being described as a horror film or as a mystery. It isn’t really either. This is, at its heart, a road movie. We don’t get many of those these days. But even when we did, we never quite got anything like this. Ullom has already begun work on his next feature, and I couldn’t be more excited to see what him and the rest of this cast and crew end up doing. Don’t miss it.
It Ends is playing now in select theaters. Watch the trailer below.
Images courtesy of Neon.
REVIEW RATING
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It Ends - 9/10
9/10
Brogan Luke Bouwhuis is a writer and film programmer whose frequent pop culture deep dives have allowed him to write about everything from the Richard Gere gerbil rumor to the history of the holiday yule log video. He co-hosts the Franchise Fiends podcast, co-captains the narrative shorts program at the Slamdance Film Festival, and co-created three children with his wife, Jessica.
