So I think Indie films are great. They're a chance for people to really get out there and do something interesting because they don't have to worry about the studios turning them down and conforming into something that only exists to make money. But I have noticed as I've watched more and more indie films that this seems to make the film makers think that it isn't worthy of a happy ending. Or, in some cases, an ending at all.
I guess the happy movie ending is cliche and it is edgier to have your main character die at the end...or the couple doesn't get together and everyone is left a little more depressed than they were when they first started watching. Or not. I guess it depends on how you look at it. I don't need every movie to end happily with everyone smiling in the sunshine, but I don't mind it happening sometimes.
The biggest problem I have is the movies that don't have an ending at all. You spend at least an hour and a half with these characters following them as they unwrap a certain problem only to have that problem or the character in general not be wrapped up. It's something I've seen a lot in Indie films...you're almost to the end...the character is about to reveal something to meet someone or have that final moment that you need...and instead the film cuts to black and the credits roll. To me, it's gut wrenching...I'm invested and I want to see how this situation plays out. A couple of examples: (spoilers)
"Another Earth" - main character decides NOT to travel to the other Earth where there are parallel versions of everyone on our Earth and instead allows her boyfriend guy to go instead in hopes of finding his dead wife and son there. That's a fine place to end...I guess...you still don't know what happens to him, but it wraps up the character's relationship at least. They take us one step further, however, and show the main character rounding a corner to see the other Earth version of herself standing there - theirs eyes meet - cut to black! I won't go into what happens in the rest of the movie in much detail...but for me seeing that other version of herself was the movie finally getting really interesting...a chance for her to see what she might be like in another reality where maybe things have gone better for her...but we don't get to see what they talk about. And what is the point of including that small scene? Besides to leave audiences wanting more?
"Your Sister's Sister" - guy's brother has died and his girl best friend sends him out to their family summer house to get his head together...the girl best friend's lesbian sister is there. The guy and the lesbian sister get drunk and have sex. Enter the girl best friend the next day and it turns out she loves the guy (obviously) ...later we find out that the lesbian sister just wants a baby and poked the condom full of holes like a crazy person. The guy leaves to go camp in the woods and the sisters spend all of one day being angry at each other before they're best friends again (yay!). The guy returns and declares his mutual love for girl best friend and that he'd be happy if lesbian sister had his baby and let him be involved (yay!). GROUP HUG...weirdest long weekend ever. That's a fine place to end....but we see another scene where all three of them are crowded together in a bathroom with a timer and a pregnancy test. The timer goes off - they all look at the pregnancy test - cut to black! Again...did we need that scene? I would have been fine not knowing whether she was pregnant or not, if it wasn't for the scene that led me to believe that I was going to know!
I think this is both a trick and a cop out. It's a trick that leaves people with something to talk about and argue about...like Christopher Nolan's "Inception" and the spinning top at the end. It's there so that when the lights come up every person in the audience is going "Well I think THIS happened...I think he was asleep! I think he was awake! I think she was pregnant!...I think she wasn't!" Even if the rest of your movie was strange and awkward what the audience is left with is that final moment and something to talk about. It's a cop out because you don't have to write an ending. You don't have to figure out how you want to sum up your characters...it's an open book...you leave the final analysis to the audience.
I get that films are an art and that indie films allow people to express themselves in a way that main stream film does not. But I think that these depressing or drop off indie movie endings have become just as cliche as the Hollywood endings that they were replacing. You can expect, when you sit down to an indie movie, that you will not be completely satisfied at the end. I like to go to movies and be entertained...it doesn't always have to be happy, but I at least want to know how it ends. If I wanted to come up with my own ending to a movie, I would write my own movie.
