Strong performances strain against the limits of Jesse Eisenberg's directorial debut When You Finish Saving the World. JacobOller's Sundance2022 review:
Jesse Eisenberg, whose ability to weaponize awkward mania and/or self-conscious cruelty made him a movie star and earned him an Oscar nomination, adapts his own sprawling Audible Original in his directorial debut, the specific yet wanting.
Lila and Kyle bear the burden of these two self-involved people looking to assuage their own need to be important—Boe and Bryk mostly stand around looking like they’d rather be anywhere else—and it’s kind of a pain to watch even though Wolfhard and Moore really sell their off-putting characters. Wolfhard’s got that “like and subscribe” cadence down pat and succeeds in making Ziggy just pure enough to be an oblivious but not detestable goober.
Evelyn foists her goodwill and expectations onto Kyle while Ziggy fails to impress Lila. Both learn a little something in the process. It’s heartwarming, even twee plotting, which clashes with Eisenberg’s ear for dialogue. The movie’s usually too self-aware and intentionally embarrassing to be truly cutesy, yet that’s what the major dramatic beats try to provide.
When the script really gets time to invest in its weird, dark worldview—when it’s allowed to sit in its pessimism for long enough to actually set us up for one of Eisenberg’s tension-relieving punchlines—the voice missing from some of the rest of the movie is clear. If Eisenberg proves anything with, it’s that he can coax great lead performances and write a hell of a teen suicide joke.