GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL 2020 - The Twentieth Century
GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL 2020
Hilariously funny, visually daring, and refreshingly original, The Twentieth Century is a film that falls just short of being great due to some problems that arise near the conclusion It is a faux biopic about William Lyon Mackenzie King and how he rose to power and became Canadian Prime Minister, all while fending off some of his devious urges and desires. Nevertheless, it’s a consistently enjoyable experience where the passion from everyone involved clearly shines through.
The first 5 minutes are perfectly transparent for what the rest of the film will be like: a fantastic and painstaking visual recreation of classical cinema with a hilarious, absurdist sense of humor. The actors set the tone the film is going for by delivering every insane line and every deranged action with a straight face. They could’ve so easily gone obnoxiously over-the-top with this material, but they ground themselves in the offbeat reality of the film. The gender-swapping of certain real-life people and minor characters also helps to distinguish this reality. Dan Beirne does a great job portraying Mackenzie King, showing the transformation of a person who is gradually losing his mind. His performance becomes significantly more erratic as it goes on.
The dialogue is very well-written. It would’ve been adequate to just focus on the comedy and treat everything else as secondary objectives, but the script, courtesy of writer/director Matthew Rankin, actually takes the time to develop the main character in a way that makes him likable. The progression of the humor and the style is at times jaw-dropping. It starts out with quirky, unnatural comedic sensibilities, and as it goes on, it turns all-out hallucinatory. Rarely, a gag won’t land or will go on a tad too long, and there’s a slightly annoying recurring joke, but it’s hardly frequent enough to get annoyed at. The main problem with the film, and the thing that stops it from being truly great, is the third act. While it is still enjoyable, there are several coincidences and rushed plot developments that make it less engaging than what came before. The ending itself also should’ve been set-up better, but the idea there was great.
The direction by Rankin shows a total commitment to the project. He has a definitive vision that he brought to the story, and that vision is the reason it works as well as it does. The cinematography by Vincent Biron is great: everything shown, from the symmetrical shots to the countless close-ups, stays true to the tone. This is further enhanced by the lighting, whose harsh brightness gives the shots a dreamlike quality. It even adds Dutch angles, a usually distracting technique, in a way that feels necessary, and the footage is appropriately grainy and flawed, which helps sell the authenticity of the film era being replicated.
The fakeness and abstract quality of the outside environments and backgrounds is able to compliment the set design, which is pristine. Every indoor setting is clean and feels purposefully artificial. Even the props fit in, with the use of animatronics serving as some of the funniest sequences in the film. Christophe Lamarche-Ledoux’s score attempts several different styles throughout: it’s sometimes ominous, sometimes adventurous, sometimes peaceful, but it always fits. The sound design stands out, with the exaggerated sound effects sometimes making the jokes hit harder. The editing, courtesy of Rankin, brings the whole thing together. Several times throughout, it takes on an incredibly rapid style of cutting during moments of insanity, which works really well.
The Twentieth Century is a breath of fresh air. It’s refreshing to see something that is visually out there without being obnoxious, boundary-pushing without being offensive, satirical without being heavy-handed. It is a film that should be sought out by anyone looking for an unpredictable and wild ride.