'Rumours' review: A blistering and bizarre comedy about the end of the world

Coming to theaters amid the fervor of the U.S. presidential election season, Rumours might seem to be targeting the absurdity within American politics. However, its aim is much broader, skewering global politics as a whole. More remarkable, this scorching satire from co-directors Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, and Guy Maddin plays like the unholy and hilarious spawn of Luis Buñuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie meets Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2. 

Penned by Evan Johnson, Rumours wields an ensemble of international stars, including: Cate Blanchett, Charles Dance, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rolando Ravello, Roy Dupuis, Denis Ménochet, Takehiro Hira, Alicia Vikander, and Triangle of Sadness' Zlatko Burić. Most of these actors appear as the leaders of Democratic nations, brought together for a summit about some crisis or another. The uncertain nature of the crisis is just one of the ways Johnson turns the knife in this cutting comedy, where the world's under attack by some mysterious force our leaders cannot begin to understand, much less ably confront. 

What's going on in Rumours?

The G7 event held at a vast and elegant country estate is intended to be a peaceful space where seven world leaders can collaborate on a statement for the world to witness. It's meant to be a statement so powerful and encompassing in its positive message that it will lead to equanimity, hope, and better marital sex — among other things.

However, somewhere between the photo ops involving an unearthed corpse called a "bog person" and an awkward lunch soured by too much wine and shady secrets, the world beyond their quaint lakeside gazebo radically changes. At first, the leaders can't locate another living soul — even to refresh the canapés! But before long, it's clear they are under attack, though how exactly masturbating zombies and a giant glowing brain factor into this peril is sort of beside the point. 

Cate Blanchett leads an outstanding ensemble cast. 

Playing earnest Hilda Ortmann, the Chancellor of Germany and host of this summit, Blanchett welcomes not only the other leaders, but us — the unseen audience — into this event. Dropping the snarling intensity of Tár and the swagger cool of Ocean's 8, Blanchett embraces a bouncy, conciliatory tone, which swiftly establishes her Hilda as a people-pleaser who will bend over backwards until she breaks. 

Perhaps it's Hilda's own repressed emotions that draws her to the overwrought Maxime Laplace (a devastatingly dapper Dupuis), the heartbroken Prime Minister of Canada. While the crisply professional Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Cardosa Dewindt (Amuka-Bird), and the bloviating President of France, Sylvain Broulez (Ménochet), aim to crack into this supposedly important public statement, Maxime and Hilda wander off into a forest lit like a moody nightclub for some sexual sympathy under the haze of purple fog. 

Sylvain's self-important gregariousness is well-paired with the smiling but often silent Tatsuro Iwasaki (Hira), the Prime Minister of Japan. But the most dazzling comedy duo here is Rolando Ravello as Antonio Lamorte, the clownish Prime Minister of Italy, and Charles Dance as Edison Wolcott, the President of the United States who speaks resolutely in a British accent. (A cheeky dialogue exchange addresses this detail without actually answering it. But truly, in a movie this devotedly ludicrous, if you're getting hung up on a curious accent, you're already lost.) 

Together, these actors sharply navigate not only the uncertain terrain of Rumour's rural setting, but also the cerebrally silly tone that infuses every bit of dialogue and action. 

Rumours relish in buzz words and blathering.  

You know that very irksome thing where you ask someone a direct question — even a yes or no question! — and they devolve into a confounding collection of phrases and words that manage to add up to nothing? Though rampant in political debates, that's not an easy thing to write. And yet Johnson manages it infuriatingly well. 

Whether massaging the language of a delicate topic or conceiving a plan of how to find help in a world swarming with resurrected, wanking cadavers, these laughable leaders talk in extraordinary circles. At first, when they are safely in the refined setting of china plates and posh meals, it's comedic yet low-key annoying to watch them talk around crisis — as if the word itself is a foreign concept because of their, power, wealth, and privilege. But as they come to realize their positions as world leaders mean nothing to the curious creatures of this freaky forest, a delicious schadenfreude sets in. Far from a slasher movie, where the audience might identify with the fleeing human prey, Rumours invites us to cackle at these politicians' peril, dehumanizing them through mocking portrayals just as political rhetoric too often does to the common person. 

Of course, if you're not much for subtext, there's also the pleasure of Johnson's twisted imagination, which unfurls nightmare creatures with curious kinks and confounding powers, leading to scenes of surreal spectacle and humorous violence. Undeniably, there's a thrill watching the absurd mayhem of Rumours play out, even if you're not sure what the hell is going on. 

This surreally strange satire is a terrifically wild ride, fueled by the game performances from a charismatic cast and the deranged creatures into which they collide. Simply put, Rumours is a bonkers blast.

Rumours was reviewed out of its North American Premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie will next screen at the New York Film Festival. Rumours opens in theaters Oct. 18.