When You Finish Saving the World review – Jesse Eisenberg’s patchy directorial debut

The actor turns writer-director for a hit-and-miss comedy drama about a mother and son trying to find meaning in their lives

And so Sundance 2022 begins with the curtain drawn back by Jesse Eisenberg, an actor who's long been linked with the festival, with films such as The Squid and the Whale, Adventureland, Holy Rollers, The End of the Tour and last year's Wild Indian all premiering. His on-screen persona - jittery, insecure, fast-talking, intelligent - made him an ideal poster boy not just for Sundance but the independent scene at large, a writer's schtick made so believable on screen that it felt inevitable he would soon head behind it.

He went from writing short stories to writing plays and now he's writing and directing his first film, the so-so festival opener When You Finish Saving the World, based on his audio drama from 2020. Eisenberg doesn't star but he's cast Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard to fill the role, the actor doing a successful cover version without leaning into cheap impersonation. He's Ziggy, a high schooler who devotes his time to his music which he livestreams to an audience of over 20,000 people worldwide, a number he's endlessly proud of. His mother Evelyn (Julianne Moore) is less impressed, her time focused on the more noble act of running a shelter for victims of domestic abuse.

When You Finish Saving the World is showing at the Sundance film festival and will be released later this year