Our take
A truly bizarre comedy that shoots far beyond the boundaries of what should probably be considered good taste, The Twentieth Century stands as one of the strangest movies ever made based on a historical figure. Adapted from the real Mackenzie King’s (Canada’s longest-serving prime minister) diaries, the film replaces any traces of reality with psychological projection and almost nonsensical stoner humor. It functions as a satire of the way Canadian society is often depicted as polite (when, according to writer/director Matthew Rankin, it’s anything but) and as a portrait of how even the most powerful politicians are just little boys seeking approval and indulging in fetishes to compensate for the love they can never receive.
What it won
Berlin
1 win
The story
Toronto, Canada, 1899. William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874-1950) fervently believes that he is destined to become Prime Minister, but to do so he will first have to fight his personal obsessions and overcome the many obstacles he will encounter on his tortuous path to power.
Elsewhere
"These performances and several others resonate against Dany Boivin's sets like echoes, and that cohesiveness allows "The Twentieth Century" to achieve a degree of centrifugal force that holds your attention even after your eyes glaze over."
— David Ehrlich
"At a time when normalcy has routinely backflipped into a pool of insanity, The Twentieth Century makes perfectly perverse sense."
— Matt Fagerholm
Seeking love and approval all around him, Mackenzie King aspires to become Prime Minister of Canada in this surrealist vision of 1899 Toronto.
Art director Dany Boivin and cinematographer Vincent Biron deserve credit for creating arguably one of the most striking fantasy worlds ever put on film. Looking and sounding like a vintage Technicolor movie from the '40s or '50s, The Twentieth Century draws from the distorted, angular sets of German Expressionism, to the rigidity of propaganda films, and even more modern comedies about getting high and having really bad trips. There's always something new to look at, even in the way that the characters move across the frame, and it's become increasingly rare to be able to say that about a comedy.
You will die if you watch this while you're not sober.
Who picked it
Emil Hofileña is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. He also writes as a theater critic, with work published in Rogue and Out of Print, among others. He’s probably crying over a movie or an episode as we speak.
