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In Guy Maddin’s Rumours, What’s Amazing is That There’s No Secret Societies At Work Here

There’s lots of absurdist moments in this polticial satire set during the apocalypse in Rumours. What’s offered is more than just a movie review here, but also an analysis about what it all means!

Guy Maddin's Rumours Movie Poster Now playing at select theatres
Spoiler Alert

When Guy Maddin’s Rumours gets heavy with absurdist humour and presents a group of world leaders as inept, this movie may well be his most bizarre to date. That’s because of the setup: these folks have gathered to deal with some unknown global crisis. And as for whether the mud people they discover is part of it or not, that’s a mystery they’ll have to figure out, if they don’t kill each other first! I suspect these subplots had the help of co-directors Evan and Galen Johnson during filming, and reminded me of the classic soap opera, Dark Shadows.

By the time everyone agrees on how to enact a plan against some strange mauraders, it’s too late. Here, we meet German premier Hilda Orlmann (Cate Blanchett) trying to keep it together, but I suspect she’s ready to crack. And the people who are there to represent other extremes include Antonio Lamorle (Rolando Ravello) from Italy; Maxime Laplace (Roy Dupuis) from Canada; Sylvain Broulez (Denis Ménochet) from France; Tatsuro Iwasaki (Takehiro Hira) from Japan; Cardosa Dewind (Nikki Amuka-Bird) from the UK, and US President Edison Wolcott (Charles Dance). While most of them are caricatures of certain leaders we know in our world, the folks who don’t get lost in the shadows.

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The One Detail That Might Have Saved Borderlands from Being a Dud Is…

For the Sake of the Curious, Not Even Jack Black Can Save Borderlands from Mediocrity. What’s explored here is why I think it failed.

Lionsgate Films

Eli Roth should stick to making splatterpunk films than dabble with properties that he’s not likely to include his trademark scares with. The reason I like the Borderlands game is because of the archaeology. Those legends to explain why the tech exists are a lot more fascinating than the characters, and in this film, it’s lightly touched upon instead of gone nose deep!

Here, the idea concerns Vault Hunters in the search for artefacts from a forgotten civilization strewn around the world of Pandora. Any weapon they find can help “enrich” them in later missions. I liked the world building but didn’t feel I had to play through them all. The characters who populate this world are misfits. Some cry foul language, and there’s a bubblegum pop culture aesthetic which made the game come alive.

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TIck Tock, The House With A Clock In Its Walls Chimes in Tues, Dec 18th!

Not every trope needs to be explored in The House With A Clock in Its Walls. It’s essentially a movie about a haunted house.

Horror maestro Eli Roth proves he can make a family-friendly film and still remain loyal to his humble beginnings. When considering certain production elements gave the cast the creeps, I had to chuckle. This admission can be found in the bevy of extras (5 to 7-minute clips) included in The House With A Clock in Its Walls home video release. It’s already available on digital and can be bought online or purchased at media outlets come December 18th.

Fans of the 1973 novel by John Bellair and newcomers to his works can hear about how his book was adapted. Included are alternate opening and ending sequences which would have entirely changed the tone of the film. Though I have not read the book in years, I do know filmmakers record a collection of ideas, and work with editors to fashion the best narrative possible. Full details of deleted scenes and the creation of can be found listed at the end of this article.

Roth imbues this work with a lingering sense of dread. Screenwriter Eric Kripke is best known for creating Supernatural and to see him writing screenplays with that jovial camaraderie as the series makes this tale shine. The film even slimes it up Nickelodeon style! The terror is soft enough to give goosebumps and when I share the same sentiment as Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) for rustic looking porcelain dolls, I had to bite my lip. His goal is to find where that clock is and he gives this work the comic relief to make it just as fun as Robin Williams Jumanji. He is aided by Blanchett as Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett). Isaac Izard (Kyle MacLachlan) is the villain, and he makes no bones about it; he wants to turn back time.

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