The Best Movies and TV Shows Like I’m Thinking of Ending Things

A young woman, hesitant about the future of her relationship, travels with her quirky, neurotic new boyfriend, Jake, to visit his isolated family farm in rural nowhere. During the car ride, she repeatedly contemplates ending things with him, plagued by an internal voice questioning his suitability and her own identity, even as Jake tries to impress her with trivia, poetry, and musical theater references. Upon arrival, the atmosphere grows deeply unsettling. Jake’s aging mother and father behave erratically, shifting ages and temperaments rapidly from scene to scene, reflecting Jake’s deteriorating mental state and his distorted memories. Time and space warp continuously; the dog ages and dies instantly, basement doors appear and vanish, and photographs in the house inexplicably feature the young woman’s own face, signaling that she is not a real, independent person, but rather an idealized amalgamation of Jake’s past regrets, unrealized romances, and deep loneliness. As a blizzard traps them, the psychological tension escalates. The parents subject her to bizarre interactions, highlighting Jake’s profound social isolation and lifelong feelings of inadequacy. Eventually, Jake and the young woman leave the farm, enduring a tense drive back through the intensifying snowstorm. They stop at a desolate high school so Jake can dispose of his old ice cream containers, which he insists on doing despite the hazardous weather. Inside the freezing, dimly lit hallways, the narrative dissolves completely into surrealism and theatrical fantasy. The young woman gets separated from Jake, encountering a melancholy janitor who serves as the film’s tragic anchor, representing the elderly, forgotten version of Jake who spent his entire life working in the shadows, dreaming of art, connection, and romantic fulfillment that never materialized. In a poignant, dreamlike sequence blending dance, aging, and hallucination, a younger Jake and a stylized representation of the woman perform a romantic ballet that ends in a tragic rejection, mirroring the central theme of unrequited longing. The film culminates in a surreal parking lot scene where Jake’s younger self merges with his older janitor persona, sitting alone in a car covered in snow, freezing to death while hallucinating a musical number featuring characters from *Oklahoma!*, finally surrendering to the bitter cold and the tragic realization of a life unlived.