Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin teams up with frequent collaborators Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson on ‘Rumours’ an absurd black comedy film about world leaders meeting at the G7 Summit to talk about an existential global threat facing humanity.
‘Rumours’ had its world premiere out of competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month. The film is also set to be screened at the 62nd New York Film Festival.
The film features Academy Award-winning actresses Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander alongside a star-studded cast of Charles Dance, Roy Dupuis, Denis Ménochet, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rolando Ravello, Takehiro Hira, and Zlatko Buric.
Release Date
Directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson, ‘Rumours’ opens in select US theaters on October 18, 2024.
Synopsis
Ricocheting between comedy, apocalyptic horror, and swooning soap opera, Rumours follows the seven leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies at the annual G7 summit, where they attempt to draft a provisional statement regarding a global crisis. With unexpected, uproarious performances from a brilliant ensemble cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander, and Charles Dance, these so-called leaders become spectacles of incompetence, contending with increasingly surreal obstacles in the misty woods as night falls and they realize they are suddenly alone.
A genre-hopping satire of political ineptitude, the latest film from incomparable directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson is a journey into the absurd heart of power and institutional failure in a slowly burning world.
Reviews
David Ehrlich in an IndieWire review gave the film a positive score of B-, writing, “‘Rumours’ thrives in its broadness, especially as the lack of political specificity that it offers to its characters only deepens the fact that there isn’t a single real credo shared between them.”
Robbie Collin in a Daily Telegraph review gave the film a perfect score of 5/5, writing, “This triumphantly stupid ensemble comedy… casts the G7 leadership adrift in a B-movie, essentially turning the heads of the leading liberal first-world democracies into the Mystery Machine gang from Scooby-Doo.”
Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for ‘Rumours.’