The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Cannes Film Festival 2022

When You Finish Saving the World

Cannes Film Festival 2022: When You Finish Saving the World | Review
18 May 2022
Selina Sondermann
Avatar
Selina Sondermann
18 May 2022

Movie and show review

Selina Sondermann

When You Finish Saving the World

★★★★★

Special event

Cannes Film Festival 2022

16th to 28th May 2022

In 2020 Jesse Eisenberg wrote an Audible Original radio drama, which he also co-narrated, alongside Kaitlyn Dever and Finn Wolfhard. The latter returned to reprise his role as Ziggy Katz in the film adaptation, which premiered earlier this year at Sundance and marks Eisenberg’s directing debut.

Ziggy is an awkward high school student by day, and a virally successful singer-songwriter live-streaming his music across the globe by night. His crush, Lila (played by the mesmerising Alisha Boe), is not swayed by his frantic attempts to impress her with numbers of subscribers. She is a bright political activist who writes poems about the colonisation of the Pacific ocean. Meanwhile Ziggy’s mother (Julianne Moore), who works at a women’s shelter, takes a particular interest in one of her charge’s sons, who, despite his sensibility, still wants to work in his abusive father’s bodyshop. 

When You Finish Saving the World begins with a collage of video chat footage of Ziggy’s audience, who watch him perform one of his songs. The lyrics, clearly elucidated at a later stage, are about “two high-speed cars on parallel streets” and set the tone for the plot. Their storylines are similar; despite ample opportunity (the young mechanic and Ziggy go to the same school), there are no intersections, but still their individual paths bring the estranged mother and son closer to each other, as they fail to bond with their respective surrogates. 

Eisenberg approaches the dramatic elements of his script with sensitivity, without becoming too sentimental. The comedic parts follow the usual heightened pattern of teenage angst and parental confusion, but are never farcical or exaggerated to the point where either party would be outright mocked. 

The dry delivery of dialogue works for the most part, but on occasion, in combination with the actors’ deadpan faces, can evoke the feeling of watching a table read, rather than the converted product.

A conscious decision was made to leave many of the shots and scenes as early as possible, once the necessary information was delivered. This is encouraged in film schools as it has the desired effect of moving the action along at a snappy pace and, with it’s runtime of 88 minutes, this feature favourably falls into Netflix’s new SNL inspired “Short-Ass Movies” category. The downside is that this strategy can rob the characters of the opportunity to grant the audience insight into whatever emotion lingers after an unpleasant exchange, or reveal to the viewer what they would never want to reveal to any of the other characters.

★★★★★

Selina Sondermann

When You Finish Saving the World does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Cannes Film Festival 2022 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Cannes Film Festival website here.

Related Itemscannes film festivalfilm festivalreview

More in Cannes

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

“I think I’m kind of a drug addict for image and sound coming together! I’m always putting images to sound and getting high”: An interview with Hlynur Pálmason, director of Godland

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Leyla’s Brothers: An interview with Saeed Roustayi

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Plan 75: An interview with director Chie Hayakawa

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Falcon Lake: An interview with director Charlotte Le Bon

Selina Sondermann
Read More

“How to make a genuine portrait of life”: An interview with the stars of Leila’s Brothers

Selina Sondermann
Read More

“It’s never as I planned it to be, but that’s the point. I like that”: An interview with Marie Kreutzer, director of Corsage

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Smoking Causes Coughing (Fumer Fait Tousser)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

The Woodcutter Story (Metsurin Tarina)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Selina Sondermann

When You Finish Saving the World

★★★★★

Special event

Cannes Film Festival 2022

16th to 28th May 2022

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Ed Sheeran at Wembley Stadium
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Eagles bring a nostalgia-laden evening to the BST Festival in Hyde Park
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • “He used to spit at the audience, roll on the ground, he did, in fact, hump that plastic dog – he was the original punk rocker”: Baz Luhrman, Tom Hanks, Austin Butler, Olivia DeJonge and Alton Mason on Elvis
    Cinema & Tv
  • The Princess
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Terminal List
    ★★★★★
    amazon
  • Baymax!
    ★★★★★
    disney
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Parisian bar Little Red Door to take over Adam Handling’s Eve Bar on 7 July
    Food & Drinks
  • Netflix Walking Tour: From Bridgerton to The Crown, a free walking tour through the filming locations
    Cinema & Tv
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Netflix Walking Tour: From Bridgerton to The Crown, a free walking tour through the filming locations
    Cinema & Tv
  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Minions: The Rise of Gru
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Rollings Stones give Glasto a run for its money at BST Festival in Hyde Park
    ★★★★★
    Live music
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

“My aim is that the film is smart enough on the one hand to allow itself to be totally idiotic on the other”: Michel Hazanavicius on zombie movie Final Cut (Coupez!)
“No-one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance?’”: A rendez-vous with Tom Cruise at Cannes