Popular reviews

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★½ 5

  When Lin Manuel-Miranda read Ron Chernow’s biography on Alexander Hamilton, he was inspired to reach into the past and write a culture-devouring hip-hop musical that would rescue one of America’s Founding Fathers from the airlessness of history, restore his manhood, and lionize his non-stop genius. When filmmaker Matthew Rankin read the diary of William Lyon Mackenzie King — three-time Canadian prime minister and the nation’s most dominant political figure across the first half of the 20th century — he was inspired to reach into the past and create a funny, phantasmagorical nightmare of a biopic that sublimates King’s formative years into a Freudian soup of shoe fetishism, ejaculating cactuses, baby seal-clubbing, endurance tickling, and some of the weirdest movie kisses…

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  Review by k(arst)en ★★★ 4

  Visually, sure! Concept, great! Production design, oh my god! Take aways? Not much!

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  Review by jourdain searles 4

  are canadians okay?

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  Review by Jaime Rebanal ★★★★½ 4

  The most ridiculously Canadian movie ever made, and yet I, a Canadian was still wholly confused from beginning to end.

  I don't even know what else there is to be said about The Twentieth Century but it's just something that definitely needs to be experienced as I don't think reading out what I'll say would be enough to cover what sort of movie this is. All I can confirm is that it's very Canadian from beginning to end.

  Many thoughts, head full.

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  Review by Justin Decloux ★★★★★

  My favourite film of midnight madness and the best Canadian film of the year. It's got everything a good citizen of the dominion needs: Narwhal impalement, insanely intricate sets, and a deadly ice maze of death to choose the next prime minister. The trailer highlights the silliness and denseness of the visuals, but what it doesn't indicate is how compelling it all is. Prime Minister William MacKenzie King could have been played as a clueless fop, but instead, Dan Beirne gives him a doomed sadness that invests the narrative with actual stakes. He wants to be a spineless centrist, but the powers that be want him to sell out beyond even what he could imagine!

  See it.

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  Review by Noah Thompson ★★★★

  CIFF: Day 4
  Film #9

  Downright hilarious and a stylistic powerhouse of originality. I think I would have liked this even more if I was more tuned in to Canadian politics, but even as its own entity, I thought this was great. Mackenzie King might be one of my favorite characters of the year so far, and the performance from Dan Beirne was stellar. The humor and the visual style, reminiscent of a Rankin/Bass production, but with live action characters and extremely crude and unnerving jokes, ejaculating cacti, boot fucking, baby seal clubbing and all. Beyond that humor, The Twentieth Century offers an intriguing analysis on the concept of power, especially through the lens of masculine politics. What does it…

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  Review by Jonny ★★★½ 3

  The ability to tell of everyday stories, everyday experiences, and everyday people is one of the greatest things about film. Representation matters so that empathy can be created for every type of culture around the world. Finally, thanks to The Twentieth Century, the world can finally understand what it's like to be a Canadian.

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  Review by hamfruitcake ★★★

  If Lynch and Monty Python decided to make a movie about Canada at the turn of the previous century it might look like this. But I'm not 100% sure I've had many experiences like this.
  The sets and the design were gorgeous but I didn't have a damn clue what was going on.

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  Review by Sean Gilman ★★★★

  Director introduced this with the warning that this would be “a work of Maximalism” and “nightmarishly Canadian”. That seems about right, though my knowledge of Canadian culture and history is about 80% Kids in the Hall, 10% Guy Maddin, 5% Future//Present movies and 5% a smattering of random TV shows (SCTV, DeGrassi, Kim’s Convenience, etc).

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  Review by Dave Taylor ★★★

  It’s like one of those cerebral Kids In The Hall sketches…

  …except for an hour and a half…

  …and not that funny.

  Impeccable art direction though.  

  Plus you gotta love any filmmaker who is willing to put it all on the line in these art-devoid times.

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  Review by SylvainL ★★★★

  Je pensais que ça allait être plus mordant sur la politique (ce l'est pas du tout), mais maudit que c'est l'fun.

  Et je veux bien croire qu'il n'y a pas tant de cinéaste canadiens qui s'inspirent du cinéma muet pour faire de faux films patriotiques surréalistes emplis de désirs sexuels refoulés qui menacent l'intégrité d'une nation, mais ça ressemble pas vraiment à du Guy Maddin pour autant. Disons que c'est une version lite, sans fantôme, plus évidemment cohérente et axée sur le plaisir immédiat des images débiles sans être trop déstabilisantes, avec un Winnipeg plus infernal que somnambule. Mais c'est une manière un peu poche de le dire, parce que c'est vraiment l'fun.

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  Review by matthewcutchen ★★★★★

  This sits squarely in the middle of the Venn diagram of a bunch of things that I love deeply—esp. as far as the use of cinematic language and the possibilities that still few directors decide to explore on this level.

  Aka…

  HYPERREAL UNREALITY

  The influences of Guy Maddin, Nobuhiko Obayashi, Karl Zeman (and Schrader’s Mishima) are joyously on display in the best possible way.

  This does so much that I hope to explore in my own work someday (when I have a budget). I really have so much to say about this film, but, honestly, it’s too much for me to go on about right now. And it would actually end up being about way more than this movie, but…