Review of The Saddest Music in the World (2003) by Alex S — 11 Jun 2009

Depression-era Winnipeg is the location for a beer baroness' contest to the nations of the world to find the absolute saddest piece of music ever made. The prize? All-important money. The contestants? America has Chester (an absolutely awesome Mark McKinney) who has never cried and is accompanied by his gal who harbors a telepathic tapeworm.

Canada has Chester's father who happened to sever our baroness' legs earlier in life (not to worry - she walks on glass prosthetics filled with her own beer). Serbia has the reclusive brother of Chester, who may have once been married to Chester's girlfriend.

Mexico, Siam, Poland and a bunch of other countries put up a fight in this not-quite-silent, not-quite-black-and-white modern movie. Got all that? I hope so because I'm not sure I do. This is a Guy Maddin film so you can expect crazy compositions (random musical numbers! bursts of color!), techniques (I think I read this entire thing was filmed indoor on a sound stage.

..) and moments (victory in the competition means you get to slide down a chute into a pool of beer, which could be incredible depending on who you are). Unfortunately, you can also expect to either love or hate this since this is one work that does not leave much middle ground for indifference.

Still, if you give it a shot, I promise you'll never see anything else like it, and that has to be worth something, right?