The Twentieth Century

This is one of the most strikingly original cinematic visions I have seen in quite some time. The movie is worth watching for the unique visual aesthetics and effects alone, but everything else about it surpassed my expectations and impressed me as well. With a title as broad as The Twentieth Century, this one felt like a real shot in the dark, but it paid off immensely. I mean, I had no idea it was going to be a dark surrealist comedy about Canada, for one...

The entire cast went above and beyond bringing their absurdist characters within this fantasy interpretation of Canada to life, all managing to be on the same wavelength, riding the line between comically animated and viscerally intense. On that note, the bizarre tone of the entire film was also one of it's strongest suits - the fact that it can balance satirical comedy, arthouse absurdism, and traditional storytelling so well is really something to wonder over. No matter what type of person you are, there's no way you could predict what you're going to see next while viewing this rollercoaster of imagery and idea.

This is a truly locked-in vision that is incredibly singular. I've never seen anything quite like it. It was written, shot, directed, and edited very succinctly. I can't recommend it to everyone, because, honestly it will be TOO original for the average viewer - they won't know what to take of it. They won't know how to feel. But, this is really a bit of a masterwork and deserves accolades. If you value originality, or the art and craft of filmmaking itself, do yourself a favor and check this out. Curious to see where this takes Matthew Rankin in the future.

Fantastic graphics, mesmerizing actors and actresses, the film is fun as hell and makes something as dry as Canadian federal politics in the early 20th century something with a crazy adrenaline kick / drug fever to it. Ive never seen a Guy Maddin film which takes inspiration from but I think it is very unique and I will revisit this film a lot more in the future.

This isn't a typical movie. It's more like a theater production of something to do with something. I'm sure it had some point and so it's lucky it's not being given one star. Is this historical? Some boot sniffer, the SNIFFER sir, I call thee a sniffer!! It's kind of entertaining in a never will I ever bother watching this again sort of way. I don't understand people saying things about Monty Python because some of that stuff is actually funny. The Holy Grail is the best of Monty Python and this movie has none of that charm whatsoever. It's a bit like when people would hear some "alternative" music in the late 80s and describe it as like R. E. M. It was nothing like REM but people associate certain things with certain things. Of course REM are so mainstream it's laughable but in a world ruled by synth pop or hair metal it was different at the time. Where does that leave The Smiths, The Cure, The Psychedelic Furs and a million other bands that were at that time the latest of the waves of newness. But I digest, nom nom. This movie is sort of not funny, but it's oddness makes it seem unusual.

After Hemingway received the Nobel Prize for "The Old Man and the Sea" he was asked about it's many metaphors and their validity. Hem answered in words to the effect that it was true those symbols represented many things depending on what the reader brought to the sitting.

Well friends, this jeweled marvel is very much like a woman or sea, capable of bestowing or witholding great treasures! I just discovered it and now the world seems just a little less desolate, a little more comforting.

And why are we affronted by and attack those things we don't understand? The very best professional critics are guilty of the same.

Ok so I'm laying it on pretty thick but I'm trying make a strong point to the hosers. All I ask is that you please at lease skim a Wiki page before lending this, my new favorite film a discouraging rating.

Some people don't understand that the cinematography of this movie is based on German Expressionism. Just for this, this movie is already worth a watch. You'll see triangular shapes standing for mountains, cubes for buildings, with neons lights and triangular shaped windows. A visual phantasmagoria.

The satire of Canadian politics depicts a much wider and darker world that is to come. Idealisms in the form of evolutionary humanism (Nazism) and egalitarian humanism (Communism), would rise to nearly to dominate the world and fall.

Characters might be extravagant, and at some points you might find them disgusting, but don't let that ruin the experience of a neon filled expressionist decorum à la Fritz Lang with some Monthy Pythonesque references and its eclectic soundtrack of a world that was about to experiment all of this. Can you imagine the excitement if you would have been living back then (1899) and the terror and disappointment of knowing what was to come?

An experiment in fusion of ideas with a quite unique outcome.