By John Corrado

Distributor NEON has just released the first trailer for The End, aka the narrative feature debut of documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence). The film is an ambitious apocalyptic character drama set in an underground bunker at the end of the world, that also happens to be done in the style of a Golden Age Hollywood musical. George MacKay, Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon lead the cast.

This trailer really highlights the musical elements, which is one of the aspects that is drawing some mixed reactions, with the film having proven to be somewhat divisive since it premiered at Telluride. But The End really worked for me when I saw it at TIFF (you can read my full review from the festival here), and I found the whole thing to be very moving and brilliantly performed. The trailer gives viewers a taste of the film’s very specific tone, and MacKay’s excellent performance at the centre of it.

This has turned into a year of unique musicals (Better Man, Emilia Pérez), and for my money The End is one of the best. The film opens in theatres on December 6th, and is being handled by Elevation Pictures in Canada. The trailer is below, please feel free to comment your thoughts after you have watched it!