The reason why I watched “Endless” was because I saw the one-star review that Rogerebert.com gave it. I was curious. Why one star? I decided to watch it as I had nothing better to do with my time. Actually, I did have sometime better to do. I was feeling anxious over a gig I was pursuing and Monday was the 17th was the day I hear from my client. “Endless” movie came out on the 14th of August and I read Ebert on the 16th. I was looking for something to distract me so I went for “Endless”. I think the title played a role, too, in choosing to watch “Endless”. I wasn’t feeling confident about the response from my client and I wanted something endless to spare me of the coming (bad) news. Side note: I got the gig.
The first point of note for me was the combination of the lovers in this fantastic romantic. The male, Nicholas Hamilton is white while the female Alexandria Shipp is biracial. Convenient, huh, just like a political ticket. Just like the Democratic presidential ticket. Joe Biden is old, so his running mate should be in her middle age; he is white, so his running mate should be colored, so throw in a black woman with South Asian roots; and since he is male, she mustn’t be a man: the ticket needs to look American.
So also the ticket of this romance – a white boy and a biracial girl. We have seen a lot of this lately. A white boy and an Asian girl such as this. A white girl and a black boy such as this and this. Balanced, politically balanced, bullshit. I think I may be overreacting to this. Since I read the interview in 2015 that Will Smith gave in 2005 after “Hitch” came out saying that he as a black man had to be cast with a Latina in other not to offend white cinema-goers who won’t feel so comfortable watching a black man kissing a white woman. This stroke me and struck with me.
Now, whenever I see a black man with a woman of color who isn’t black, I remember Will Smith and cuss America. When I saw a white male with a woman of color, I think “oh, balancing the ticket, huh?” and when I saw a man of color with a white woman I say they are trying to correct “Hitch” and it vexes me anew.
I think the writers and makers of these movies do not even think of these movies in this light. Sometimes, they are making a script out of a novel with the characterization already set in stone. But the world has become too politically correct for me that whenever I saw dual racial couples, it brings out the cynic in me.
Endless movie review: The concept
But I must confess that this race politics didn’t spoil the movie for me. There was no time for it to do that as the film hit the ground running. Directed by Scott Speer and produced by Gabriela Bacher and co., the movie starts with Riley played by Shipp open a letter from the University in Georgetown. She gets accepted to study law and she is excited. Her boyfriend Chris played by Hamilton comes to pick her up with his bike for a party. Riley hasn’t yet told him about the good news.
See also: Project Power on Netflix review
At the party, the party organizer stops the music to announce the good news to the party-goers to wild excitement. Chris isn’t happy for two good causes: One, he is hearing about his girlfriend’s admission from a stranger on a stage; two, she will be going far away. To allay his fears, he drinks too much. Now, he can’t ride so Riley takes him home in a mutual friend’s car. They argue in the car and Riley gives in to say he loves her. She is distracted for a few seconds and it is enough: they crash and Riley dies.
But he doesn’t go to heaven or hell, or paradise, or purgatory, or wherever region teaches us that dead people go to. He stays on earth just that no one can see him nor feel him. But because of the powerful connection he has built with Riley, her case is different. She is an artist and while struggling with a guilty conscience she begins to invoke her lover into her presence by drawing him on paper.
Everyone thinks she is losing her mind and she may have been going nuts even to the point of suicide but she is not blind. She knows what she wants and she sees it. It is a great premise, this movie.
How would I rate “Endless”?
“Endless” is anything but a one-star movie that the writer at Rogerebert gave it. I think the problem with the writer is that he compared “Endless” with “Ghost” starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore and directed by Jerry Zucker and concluded that “Endless” is its terrible remake. In reviewing the “Ghost” itself, legendary critic Roger Ebert himself gave the film 2.5 stars. I think this is the same rating I am leaning on for “Endless”.
In July 2020 when the death toll of Americans killed by the coronavirus passed 150,000, Donald Trump was asked what he thought about this and he rambled for a moment or two before saying it is what it is. Popularized by Robert De Niro in his seminal title role of “The Irishman”, it is what it is is used to explain something you would rather not explain which you just have to deal with. I think the best answer to it is what it is is it is what it is.
This evening, the lovable former first lady Michelle Obama gave a taped speech in the virtual Democratic convention. She made a good case against having Donald Trump back as president and ended it with the phrase, “It is what it is.” I don’t think “Endless” is a bad movie; it is what it is.
