When You Finish Saving the World

Saw this back at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival

"When You Finish Saving the World" isn't the best A24 production but the movie is still engaging and fun due to the realistic nature between the characters portrayed by Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard and the captivating tone presented throughout. Eisenberg isn't an actor that I am incredibly invested in but he has played some really good movies over the past years in the 2010s decades of cinema. This movie displays that for an actor, his directing talents does shine quite a bit.

What makes the movie interesting is due to the characters and the engaging narrative Eisenberg presents. The characters are seen as mean, narcissistic and quite all over the place. I understand if people will be annoyed by this kind's of characters but the fact is that in real life, people can be different and mean. That's what makes it very nature and interesting. The production designs are very good, Wolfhard's singing is surprisingly pretty good and the tone is perfectly paced.

The problem is that sometimes the writing does feel flat because it is pretty predictable from the beginning to end at times. Secondly, certain dialogue spoken from the actors felt really off as if the words were written by some robot.

Overall, it is a pretty good debut despite it's flaws. It's definitely not for everyone but I recommend this if you are a lover of A24's projects.

Rating: B.

The movie never really went anywhere. It was the tale of a mom and son drifting apart, that's pretty much it.

The son is a total self absorbed Gen Z kid, looking to make a name for himself as a singer. The Mom is totally aloof and married to her job.

They each fill the void they feel with something. The son fills his void by trying to win over the girl of his dreams with his music. The Mom fills her void by befriending a boy (her sons age) at her shelter and treating him like a son. I'm sure you can guess what happens at the end.

Everything is just so dull in this movie. The acting isn't great at all. Finn Wolfhard is okay in Stranger Things, but not here. In all honesty, I don't think he's a good actor. He isn't likable. Julianne Moore is capable of better.

All in all, I would say to skip this movie. It's so dull and just not worth watching. If you must watch, don't say I didn't warn you.

This gets a LennyReviewz Score of: 3/10.

When You Finish Saving The World is more a drama than a comedy/drama. I didn't get the comedy in this movie if I have to be honest. Maybe it just wasn't my kind of humour. That said as a drama it's watchable. Not really my favourite genre of movies though so you could say a six stars rating for this one is pretty high considering the genre. It's all about two characters played by Finn Wolfhard and Julianne Moore. One struggling with what is important in life and another struggling in being a good mother instead of acheaving that at her job. The acting was okay, the story passable. It's easy to follow but not really interesting that I want to watch it again in the future.

When You Finish Saving the World is the epitome of an actor's directorial debut since it focuses on complicated people and their messy relationships. It's a film about appreciating the people right in front of you and respecting their success regardless of if you understand it that's hindered by the characters' inhospitable nature, making it a deliberately frustrating watch even at less than 90 minutes long.

The two leads are almost too good at nailing their characters and how they deliver every single line of dialogue. Julianne Moore is very convincing as someone who is way too literal and spends most of her day checked out until she finds something to obsess over and then goes too far in the other direction. Finn Wolfhard is equally convincing as an awkward self-obsessed teenager and it says a lot that their best scene together is without dialogue.

It's really impressive how obvious it is that this has been written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg. The intentionally awkward and specific dialogue matches some of his previous performances as well as fitting the tone. There's a few nice shots but this is a film that puts performances front and centre. However, his greatest strength as writer & director is in how satisfying the ending is as everything finally goes quiet and lets a moment sink in.

The first big positive about this film is that Jesse Eisenberg decided to not be in it as an actor, just a director. Then they must have thought, if Jesse wont be acting how do we find an equally bad actor who can star in it. Then the answer is, Finn Wolfhard is pretty bad at acting let´s cast him. Finn Wolfhard is another of those hollywood actors/actresses that gets casted and you must wonder which wellconnected hollywood mogul he is related to, to get parts in any movie. The film itself is ok and Julianne Moore is great as always. Unfortunately a class actress in a lead role cant save a movie when the other main "star" just can´t act. A shame for Julianne, she deserved better.