The West Bend Current

By Noah Mintie, Current Staff

An instant favorite of mine, “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” is not about the apocalypse, but it is certainly about the “end of the world.”

The film follows the exhausted Angela Raducani as her job carries her through the packed streets of Bucharest, underpaid and tired. Despite being noticeably frustrated with capitalistic society (conveyed via her attitude towards her boss), Angela puts her all into her work. Even she, however, has limits. To blow off steam, she posts ridiculously vulgar videos on TikTok under a hyperbolic caricature of Romania’s own Andrew Tate.

This is the first part of the capitalism critique that truly separates Jude’s masterpiece from the many other films that try to do the same: Angela still sacrifices everything to her job. She threatens to just quit for the day, but never does. After all, how could she? In the opinion of all of the characters, including Angela herself, capitalism is a necessary evil. Communism is brought up as nothing but a laughingstock several times by several characters. This attitude is mainly fueled by the system’s resounding failure in Romania’s past, but make no mistake, Jude does not refrain from pointing out capitalism’s failures in the present.

There are many scenes where the audience, alongside Angela, must sit through an extended period of driving through Bucharest. She gets a few calls, cusses out a few drivers, and the whole debacle is just miserable. We’ve all been there, doing something that we hate for a job that we hate owned by a boss that we hate. It is terrible, but what choice do we have?

This analysis barely scratches the surface of Jude’s expert depiction of an individual’s life under the worst of capitalism, yet I must also highlight the other part of the film that sets it apart. This, of course, is the businesses themselves. Most critiques of capitalism depict corporations as heartless beasts that destroy the world around them: capitalism at its worst. This can be accurate, but it is also very one-note. To properly convey the issues with the system, a film must be more intricate. “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” does show the problems with a corporation’s indifference and callousness with references to Bucharest’s purchase of trash from corporate giants, but it also explores a lesser-seen aspect of corporations: a failure to properly understand problems. There are many scenes where a corporate overlord (who resides in an entirely different country) insinuates ignorant and racist ideas, proposes non-solutions to life-threatening problems and literally robs employees of their voice. Sure, this is not always the case with these individuals, but this film is interested in displaying capitalism at its worst, not at its best.

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Four theaters, one city and hundreds of films: the true ingredients needed to make magic. The Milwaukee Film Festival is a beloved local event and the 2024 edition wrapped April 25. I saw six fantastic movies this year. Each was stylistically, tonally and visually different from the last, so I will offer a focused analysis of each film’s unique strengths in a series of reviews.

(Image courtesy of Milwaukee Film.)