The Twentieth Century

It’s immediately clear that The Twentieth Century has been designed to appeal to a very specific segment of the viewing audience, as filmmaker Matthew Rankin isn’t interested in the slightest in delivering an accessible, entertaining piece of work – with the picture, which follows an ambitious young man as he attempts to ascend to the office of Prime Minister of Canada, instead demanding that one be tuned into its extremely specific wavelength. Though the movie’s been infused with a fairly unique sense of style – well, assuming one is willing to overlook Guy Maddin’s work, anyway – The Twentieth Century’s total lack of an entry point ensures that it remains an often astonishingly interminable slog for the duration of its endless running time. There’s an absence of entertaining elements here that’s nothing short of disastrous, ultimately, and it’s clear, too, that Rankin’s reliance on jokes and gags of an aggressively eye-rolling and unfunny nature only exacerbates the oppressive atmosphere. (There are, for example, several female characters played by male actors and Rankin considers this very conceit to be the height of hilarity.) It’s ultimately apparent that The Twentieth Century might’ve been okay as a two-minute YouTube sketch (but even that would be pushing it), as the film is predominantly an ordeal the likes of which doesn’t come around too often (and for that we can only be grateful).

no stars out of ****