We’re All Gonna Die is a high-concept, small-scope drama that needs nothing more than your hand to rope you in for the ride. It’s absolutely gripping, from the very first moment. The film is about humanity in the most vulnerable fashion; who are we at our absolute lowest, and what does it mean to have someone by our side, hand in hand, in a time like that? The answer is obvious, and reassuring: it means everything.
What would you do if a massive spike of apparent alien origin appeared out of thin air in our world today? Oh, and not only does it exist, but it moves at random, jumping from one spot to the next, seemingly consuming everything caught in the unlucky crossfire of the split-second migration. How do you live? How often would you be comfortable sitting still? Would you ever sleep soundly again? We’re All Gonna Die presents this reality at the very beginning, opening on a montage of the wider impact this phenomenon has had on the world, before proceeding to hone in on how it specifically changes the lives of two people who happen to meet in the town in which the spike currently resides.
After nearly crashing into one another on the road, their fates are bound when the spike jumps once more, somehow dragging one of their vehicles, and the other’s way of life, with it. Together, they travel to the spike’s new location, following hints and learning to live with one another as they go. The plan is to get their lives back but, as these things normally go, what defines their lives changes drastically along the journey. Ashly Burch and Jordan Rodrigues are magnificent together at the head of this film, traversing that dynamic with a complex care that should earn them both infinite recognition.
Where Burch is reserved, Rodrigues is vulnerable, until the dynamic switches and one needs the other. On the surface, it’s a great love story, but below the flowery fields is a scorched earth exploration of sudden trauma and loss. Shown through the lens of this hyper-specific scenario, these themes shine brilliantly. There is a desperation to the world that these two live in as is, so when their pasts are slowly unfurled and their characters become clear, the full picture is one in desperate need of redemption; that’s where the love comes back around to the forefront.
This is a drama, romance, and comedy all in one. To try and combine those words into one would be a crime, so “romantic dramedy” will have to do. Writer-directors Freddie Wong and Matthew Arnold tackle all three genres, fusing them into a film that is wholly its own thing. This painfully human odyssey is pieced together with a wide usage of space and skylines. As dialogues end, the camera treks out into a surrounding field or forest and reminds us just how small this story is in the grand scheme of things, with the spike looming in the background of these shots, growing ever closer as the duo travel on.
The film’s 110-minute runtime allows for plenty of breathing room in thoughts and long talks, with character growth at the forefront in both respects. It’s a slow crawl to the finale, which, despite a slight change of pace, is appropriately ruminant in its own right. The pace fits the feeling of hopelessness set over this entire film, irritated by the circumstance for most of the runtime, yet eventually saved by that very same thing in the end. There’s a roundabout way of storytelling that few films, especially of this ilk, manage to accomplish, but We’re All Gonna Die does so with ease.
If there is any distraction, it’s in the interruptive insistence on comedy as a bookend to some of the bigger sequences. The film knows when it absolutely must cut it out, but there are a few slashes of sudden humor, run-on jokes, and ineffectual, overbearing language that fight to pull you out of the prodding pace. That has become a consistency in modern filmmaking, almost regardless of genre; it definitely doesn’t kill this one, but it does make you wish there was a greater tolerance to pure drama in efforts such as this one.
Yet We’re All Gonna Die is still without a doubt one of the best films to release this year thus far. It deserves to be playing in theaters worldwide, but as long as you get your eyes on this one, that’s all that matters. This is a contemplative, moving must-see.
We’re All Gonna Die had its World Premiere at SXSW 2024 in the Narrative Feature Competition section.
Directors: Freddie Wong, Matthew Arnold
Screenwriters: Freddie Wong, Matthew Arnold
Rated: NR
Runtime: 110m
We’re All Gonna Die is still without a doubt one of the best films to release this year thus far. It deserves to be playing in theaters worldwide, but as long as you get your eyes on this one, that’s all that matters. This is a contemplative, moving must-see.
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GVN Rating 8
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