Originally premiered at Sundance back in January, How It Ends (written, produced, and directed by the husband-and-wife-team of Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones) made its SXSW debut as one of the festival’s spotlighted features. How it Ends follows Liza, played here by Zoe Lister-Jones (doing triple duty on this feature), and her younger self, played by Cailee Spaeny, as they go on a journey through a vacant Los Angeles to seek closure on the last day on Earth. The cause of the Earth’s imminent extinction doesn’t really matter. This is not an effect-heavy sci-fi feature; rather, this backdrop serves as the vehicle to induce cleaning skeletons out of closets and facing fears.
Unlike the similarly-themed and much higher-budgeted comedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World starring Steve Carell and Kiera Knightly, How it Ends focuses primarily on one woman’s journey, along with her younger self, in order to find some answers before it’s literally too late.
If this all sounds very heavy, it’s not – well not really. Sure, the structure of the film itself has everyone die at the end, but for the viewer, we are only truly concerned with Liza. Lucky for us, Liza is extremely likeable. Throughout the film Liza finds herself mostly walking through an eerily empty Los Angeles, going from place to place making peace with everyone from her former best friend, a cheating ex-boyfriend, her absentee parents, complete strangers, to the one that got away. Liza’s ultimate destination for her last night on Earth is a party that promises to be epic, even Pauly Shore is promised to be in attendance. If the promise of Pauly Shore, playing himself in a celebrity cameo is appealing, then this movie is definitely for you.
How it Ends boasts some of the highest number of celebrity cameos of nearly any movie in recent memory. Lister-Jones and Wein clearly called in favors from their famous friends because everyone from Fred Armisen, Bobby Lee, Bradley Whitford, Helen Hunt, Whitney Cummings, Logan Marshall-Green, Colin Hanks, Nick Kroll, Finn Wolfhard, Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel, Charlie Day, to Olivia Wilde (who has a particularly funny scene as the friend who doesn’t really listen and manages to make everything about themselves) all show up for a scene steal or two.
Not every scene in this end of the world comedy is played for laughs. Liza mending fences with her mother, played by Helen Hunt, isn’t meant to be funny, but it’s not meant to be a weep fest either. The underlying mood of How it Ends, while being melancholy by nature, isn’t desperate. There aren’t any burning cars or looting on Earth’s last day, which is refreshing.
Some of the more powerful scenes in the film come from Liza’s interactions with people she wasn’t seeking on her last day, like the marvelous Tawny Newsome, as Celine, who delivers a particularly hilarious explanation as to what became of the party’s hostess, and Sharon Van Etten who encourages Liza and her younger self to sing along to a song she plays on guitar in the middle of a deserted street.
Speaking of deserted streets, when the story of this global pandemic is written it will certainly include How it Ends, which was shot entirely during lockdown. Although there is no mask wearing, the actors practice social distancing throughout, and often stand six feet apart onscreen. Many of the scenes seem like they were shot in the actors’ backyards and driveways. With few exceptions, most scenes have no more than two or three actors at any given time. But, this lends to the charm of this high concept / low budget-comedy.
At its core, How it Ends is about Liza’s relationships, and the most important one she has is with herself. Cailee Spaeny, as Liza’s younger self or “YS,” is the relationship that we root for the most. What at first seems like a heavy-handed device by Lister-Jones turns out to be one of the more beautiful parts of the film. Spaeny, who starred in the recent remake/reimagining of The Craft: Legacy which was also written and directed by Lister-Jones, plays well off her older self, providing a more in-depth and heartfelt look into Liza’s last day. At the beginning of the film, among a huge stack of pancakes, Liza laments, “My whole life, I’ve been terrified of dying alone. But tonight, I’m literally dying alone,” but her YS gets her up and out of the house anyway. We should all listen to our YS once in a while.
How it Ends is a thought-provoking, beautifully executed comedy. Be sure to check it out when you can.
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Produced, Written and Directed by Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones
Starring Zoe Lister-Jones, Cailee Spaeny, Olivia Wilde, Fred Armisen,
Helen Hunt, Lamorne Morris, Nick Kroll, Finn Wolfhard, Logan Marshall-Green,
Bobby Lee, Glenn Howerton, Bradley Whitford and Pauly Shore as himself
