SXSW ’21 REVIEW

SXSW 2021: ‘THE END OF US’ a Pandemic Breakup Movie With Just Enough Heart

Name: SXSW 2021: ‘THE END OF US’ a Pandemic Breakup Movie With Just Enough Heart
Item: The End Of Us
Rating: 81
Author: Matt Oakes

By Matt Oakes · March 16, 2021

Where to watch: Streaming on Prime Video, or rent or buy on digital (updated October 2026)Watch on Prime Video · Rent or buy on Amazon · Buy on Blu-ray/4KAs an Amazon Associate, Silver Screen Riot earns from qualifying purchases.

Timing is a fickle thing and often means a world of difference. Timing divides those who murder the stock market and those that are steamrolled by it. It’s the difference between perfectly scrambled eggs and inedible burnt yellow mush. And in the case of recently broken-up Nick (Ben Coleman) and Leah (Ali Vingiano), bad timing means that you have to quarantine with your ex during the COVID-19 stay-at-home order in The End of Us.

Written and directed by Henry Loevner and Steve Kanter, The End of Us plops a breakup movie into the midst of the 2020 global pandemic (that is still raging on a full year later) to semi-charmed effect. While many storytellers have attempted to weave the pandemic into their art or their art around the pandemic in one form of another, The End of Us confronts Covid head-on and captures the general angsty aura of those early lockdown days better than anything I’ve yet seen.

Adapted somewhat directly from the true story of actor Ben Coleman’s deteriorating relationship with his real-life girlfriend during the pandemic, Kanter, Loevenber and producer Claudia Restrepo enlisted collaborator Ali Vingiano, who, with Ben, had already played an on-screen couple for a number of YouTube BuzzFeed sketches. With a skeleton crew of three, a minimal cast of equal size, and a round of fresh COVID tests, the DIY assemblage locked down together for a two week shoot and that forced intimacy and personal encroachment vibe translates to the screen well.

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The unsuccessful actor Nick and recently-laid-off corporate-world Leah are left to establish new boundaries as they undergo the shockwaves of a breakup in way-too-close proximity and the effect is sloppy if not quite as hellish as it could be. They annoy and pester each other; Nick riffing the same damn lick on his melodica over and over again; Leah’s stress over the virus becoming all-consuming, before her attention turns to another man. It’s all rather authentic and earnest but lacks much of anything that really makes it stand out, other than the pandemic element.

The question becomes then: is that enough? In a global pandemic, is a glimmer of a smile or the shadow of a laugh enough to pass muster? Is a comedy that doesn’t really make you laugh still a worthwhile comedy? Is a movie that was pleasant enough for 90 minutes but ultimately probably won’t ever be something I think of again really worth recommending? And does anyone really want a movie about the pandemic before the damn thing is even over? COVID-19 has put everything in a different perspective and made us constantly re-examine ourselves, our lives, our priorities, and our time. As for The End of Us, maybe dwelling with these thoughts without the artifice of satire or parable is enough. At least for the time being.

CONCLUSION: Henry Loevner and Steve Kanter’s ‘The End of Us’ effectively stages a mumblecore breakup movie in the maw of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than using the pandemic as a jumping off point, the virus is a central element, which will lead to varying mileage depending upon how much viewers crave more panny in their lives.