There's a tiny subgenre of action that pits world leaders (well, ok, usually the US president) against terrorists or some other threat. It's never been very popular, but for whatever reason there's been a spike in their production lately (I won't get into the politics of it, but it is pretty concerning, particularly in the current climate). One of them even takes place at the G20 summit.
I'd say Rumours is a direct response to that one movie, but it came out before it. It pits the members of the G7 as they face an unexpected siege by the wanking dead (no, that's not a typo and no, I won't expand on it). As you might expect from a movie written and directed by Guy Maddin and frequent collaborators Evan and Galen Johnson, it attacks its material at a rather... oblique angle.
The premise an obvious joke, if a pretty good one: The leaders of the free world convene to tackle on some (unspecified) world crisis only to be faced with a more immediate and dangerous one... and they dissolve into an ineffectual muddle of infighting, grandstanding, and incompetence.
They're all so self-absorbed and so far removed from any problem that they can't deal with one that directly threatens their survival, and I have to admit that I laughed several times even when the punchlines were only slightly different variations on a theme. I also laughed when the French President starts to look for hidden meaning within the events of the night, which feels like Maddin and co. gently poking fun at themselves and trolling their audience.
The cast is very, very game and a lot of fun to watch; The Chancellor of Germany (Cate Blanchett) awkwardly tries to hold things together. The president of Canada (Roy Dupuis) is basically a stroppy teen; The POTUS (Charles Dance with his native English accent) is an artifact stuck firmly in the glories of the past. The Japanese PM (Takehiro Hira) is pretty much a non-entity who goes along with anyone else's plan, and the French president (Denis Ménochet) is a pretentious windbag. The UK PM (Nikki Amuka-Bird) is stuck as the voice of reason along with the German Chancellor. And the Italian president (Rolando Ravello) is a sweet idiot who's just happy to be included, and provides some of the biggest laughs in the movie.
Oh, and Alicia Vikander (adorable) puts in a short appearance as the leader of the European commission.
While technically this is a zombie movie, this is first and foremost a bizarre surreal movie that is just barely interested in being a comedy, much less a horror film. It does find a couple of moments to play with genre aesthetics (a garishly-lit 80's style scene in the woods, and a beautiful mist-bound scene at a ferry dock drenched in sodium light), but other than some ambiance the scarce horror elements are strictly there for laughs or as a surrealist sting.
The satire, meanwhile, is a mixed bag; Some of its barbs are clear and cogent, like the president of France making pompous, grandiloquent statements while being carried in a wheelbarrow by the leaders of other countries. Others are way too obvious, like the US president falling asleep and being generally senile... I do wonder if this movie would have been a lot more interesting had the movie been released a year or two later. The general thrust of the script - Germany timorously trying to herd a bunch of unruly idiots in order to perform a clearly ineffectual exercise, everyone being completely unable to prioritize or competently take charge of the situation - remains funny throughout . And there is, of course, a whole lot of What. The. Fuck.
The satire, meanwhile, is a mixed bag; Some of its barbs are clear and cogent, like the president of France making pompous, grandiloquent statements while being carried in a wheelbarrow by the leaders of other countries. Others are way too obvious, like the US president falling asleep and being generally senile... I do wonder if this movie would have been a lot more interesting had the movie been released a year or two later. The general thrust of the script - Germany timorously trying to herd a bunch of unruly idiots in order to perform a clearly ineffectual exercise, everyone being completely unable to prioritize or competently take charge of the situation - remains funny throughout . And there is, of course, a whole lot of What. The. Fuck.
If you're tickled by the premise, well then, you'll remain tickled by the premise, but as with all of the movies from these filmmakers, it's somewhat hostile to the viewer. Guy Maddin is a level removed from someone like Quentin Dupieux, who can produce surrealism that still functions within the genre it inhabits.
I personally don't regret watching this, but the experience of getting through it was often exasperating; It feels like it could have worked much better at half its length. But... I can't discount a film with situations as funny as a man trying to thread the line on how much pedophilic flirting is appropriate, or lines as gloriously unhinged as when someone proclaims that a giant brain is female, because "it's not as big as a male giant brain".
I personally don't regret watching this, but the experience of getting through it was often exasperating; It feels like it could have worked much better at half its length. But... I can't discount a film with situations as funny as a man trying to thread the line on how much pedophilic flirting is appropriate, or lines as gloriously unhinged as when someone proclaims that a giant brain is female, because "it's not as big as a male giant brain".
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