Music competitions aren’t really new, but usually, the goal is to find the best performers in exchange for a cash prize and a chance to make even more great music. The Saddest Music in the World is an eccentric choice to base a competition on, especially during the Great Depression and Prohibition era happening all at once, and it gets even weirder in as a film in the hands of writer-director Guy Maddin, as a beer baroness transforms it into a cultural Olympics hijacked by a strange family who should probably go to therapy for their dual love triangles. Fans of old black-and-white films would love the classic vignette and grain, but rather than wax nostalgically about the past, The Saddest Music in the World takes a more bizarre, ridiculous route on talking tapeworms and literal beer legs.
Synopsis
In Depression-era Winnipeg, a legless beer baroness hosts a contest for the saddest music in the world, offering a grand prize of $25,000.
Storyline
Winnipeg, Canada, 1933. Amputee beer baroness Lady Port-Huntley organizes a competition offering $25,000 to the person who can compose the saddest music in the world.
TLDR
The other contestants might want to find a family therapist.
What stands out
The way the film satirizes the idea of oppression olympics by having three men make it all about them. Sorry, Serbia.