Like a series of 'New Yorker' cartoons brought to life or a strip from 'Mad' magazine. Matthew Rankin's "Universal Language" has been compared to both Roy Andersson and Guy Maddin but is perhaps closer to a Marx Brothers comedy, (referenced in the opening scene), or even one of Woody Allen's 'early funny films', (also referenced in the opening scene), at least in the beginning before turning, if not quite serious, at least melancholy about the midway mark.
Visually it's amazing with the sight gags as sharp as the verbal ones and there's even a thread of a plot running through it linked by a character played by none other than Rankin himself keeping a remarkably straight face as well he might as almost imperceptibly he drains the film of the laugh-out-loud humor of the early scenes. In some quarters it's already being hailed as a masterpiece but maybe its just a little too 'obscure' for most tastes.
