THE CURRENT CINEMA- GROWING PAINS

"When You Finish Saving the World" and "Close."

- ANTHONY LANE

It comes as a surprise to learn that “When You Finish Saving the World,” a new film directed by Jesse Eisenberg, is also the first film directed by Jesse Eisenberg. Really? I could have sworn he’d taken charge before. He’s one of those actors who become de-facto auteurs, imbuing a story so richly with their manners, or their moods, that it feels like their own creation. In Eisenberg’s case, “The Double” (2013), “Louder Than Bombs” (2015), and “The Art of Self-Defense” (2019), all of them made by other directors, are galvanized by his nervous electricity. As he stares at the surrounding characters, furrowing his brow and twitching with unease, you can see their self-possession starting to waver. There you have it: Eisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.

Although he doesn’t appear in the new movie, and delegates his staring duties to the camera, the principle is upheld. No one here could be accused, even temporarily, of contentment. Welcome to the Katz family, of Bloomington, Indiana—a huge and boisterous clan numbering precisely three. Sometimes they even talk at dinner. Roger ( Jay O. Sanders) is the head of the household, but a severed head; seldom without a glass of wine, he prefers to slip upstairs, wise fellow, to read a book. Evelyn ( Julianne Moore), his wife, runs a local women’s shelter. Completing the picture is their only child, Ziggy (Finn Wolfhard), aged seventeen, who hibernates in his room.