The Saddest Music In The World review

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

A typically oddball curiosity from Canadian auteur Guy Maddin, set in Winnipeg during the Great Depression and shot in the style of a crackly black-and-white B-movie.

Isabella Rossellini plays Lady Port-Huntley, the beer baroness behind a bizarre contest to find the world's most maudlin music; having lost both legs in a car accident, she hopes the spectators will drink enough of her product to make them as legless as she is.

If this sounds sick, Maddin's just getting started. American entrant Chester (Mark McKinney) is dating his estranged brother's amnesiac wife (Maria de Medeiros). Successful competitors are dunked in a vat of ale at the end of each round. And, at one point, Rossellini is given a pair of glass legs filled with beer. Strange dialogue, too, with de Medeiros declaring, "I'm not an American, I'm a nyphomaniac!" Only in Maddin's surreal universe would such a line make perfect sense.

More info

Available platformsMovie
Less

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.