Depending on who you talk to, the world is either in crisis, on fire, at war and/or simply lurching toward a frankly deserved final judgment. So what can be done to save it? Why, a carefully worded provisional statement, of course, from the global leaders currently in possession of both the gas canister and the lit match, but not a surfeit of great ideas for the future. The ineffectiveness of rhetorical politics and symbolic diplomacy — best represented by the Group of Seven, the intergovernmental forum keen on expensive meetings that could have been emails — is kookily but ruthlessly skewered in “ Rumours ,” a wildly entertaining shaggy-dog satire that sees a stuffy G7 summit devolve into a murky, muddy and strangely isolated zombie apocalypse.
As comedy subgenres go, political satire can often veer closer to the wryly clever than the baldly hilarious. But “Rumours” — the third feature collaboration between veteran Canadian experimentalist Guy Maddin and fraternal duo Evan and Galen Johnson — is a welcome exception, scoring consistent belly-laughs with a mixture of broad goofball gags, puckish surrealism and more pointedly topical critique. The result may be premiering out of competition at Cannes, but it’s more incisive and enjoyable than certain big state-of-the-world reflections in the festival’s most prestigious section, and should gain considerably more mainstream exposure than any of the filmmakers’ previous work.
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