Film Review: The Twentieth Century

To call Canadian filmmaker, Matthew Rankin’s feature length directorial debut, The Twentieth Century, a biopic would be like calling Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind a love story. Sure, you’re not technically wrong in that assessment, but you’re not only oversimplifying it, you’re creating a set of expectations that the film itself has absolutely no intention of fulfilling. If you haven’t seen any promo material for The Twentieth Century, then it becomes very clear from the get-go that the film is doing something that is completely different and wholly its own.

What immediately strikes you is the style that Rankin brings to the film. Taking inspiration from German expressionism, Soviet propaganda films, and technicolor melodramas, the film is wall-to-wall extreme absurdist flourishes that utilize sets, miniatures, and numerous other techniques that one would normally associate with the earlier eras of filmmaking. Guy Maddin is a figure I’ve seen pop up as a filmmaker whose work is most reminiscent of what Rankin is doing here, but Rankin adds a layer of incredibly silly humor on top of its fantastical stylization that sets it apart from other modern filmmakers who seem to recreate the aesthetics of older films.

The story itself is about William Lyon Mackenzie King, a politician who became the longest serving Prime Minister in Canadian history. The film sets the tone early on with a title card declaring King to be “chosen by destiny to become the prime minister of Canada,” and the story following “the Obsessions and Bewilderment recorded in the young politician’s Diary.” A little bit of research will show that the film is taking numerous liberties with historical details as it follows King’s rise to power, with its focus instead being in satirizing the political machinations of the Canadian government in the turn of the century.

Despite the overt stylized production, the performances are kept mostly grounded, keyword being mostly as some supporting players do go a bit broad, and the film often does a thing where it randomly has women portraying men and vice versa. Dan Beirne portrays King here, and he does it with the earnestness of an overly committed student hall monitor. He carries the film well, and his ability to keep a straight face during some of the film’s more stranger and ridiculous moments is quite impressive; it would pretty much hold up if he portrayed this man the same way in a more conventional biopic.

The only drawback with the film was the lack of emotional engagement. I spent so much time soaking in the details and the sets and the costumes and the colors, but I wasn’t emotionally invested. The film being as hyperstylized as it is often got in the way of really getting into the meat of the characters and their journey. You get a solid sense of who King was, but because the world around him in this film is so divorced from reality, you don’t get the context that got him to be the kind of person he ended up becoming.

While The Twentieth Century wasn’t the most emotionally fulfilling movie, it is by no means a boring one. From beginning to end, I was consistently enamored by its commitment to the style, and the imagination that went into composing such striking imagery. As someone who loves history, I do wish it was a bit more insightful, but it’s hard to get mad when the film is as entertaining as it is. It’s beautiful and funny, and considering it’s the first feature length film from Matthew Rankin, I can’t imagine what he might have in store in the future. There’s so many movies that come out these days, it’s hard to find things that you genuinely haven’t seen before, and while the film is very clearly inspired by things have been done, the way the filmmakers put this together really makes for one of the more unique experiences I’ve had watching a film this year.

The Twentieth Century is now available in select virtual cinemas.