Cate Blanchett continues her eclectic big screen run with “Rumours”, a movie that can’t possibly be categorized in any single genre. Directed by the filmmaking trio of Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson, “Rumours” is a black comedy and a biting political satire set within a story that subtly mixes end-of-the-world science fiction with classic horror. It’s sometimes surreal, other times absurd, and proudly free of any creative constraints.

While all of that is amazing, “Rumours” is as puzzling as it is entertaining. This is a movie that poses more questions than it cares to answer. It throws in some outlandish twists which (probably) have allegorical purposes but I’ve yet to figure them out. And its melding of the real-world with the fantastical can be more confounding than insightful. At the same time, it’s beguiling in all the right ways and ultimately the cause of the chaos we witness takes a back seat to the bungling response from the seven world leaders we spend our time with.

The story takes place during a G7 summit – an annual gathering where leaders from the world’s wealthiest open democracies (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, England, and the United States) convene to discuss the globe’s biggest issues. For screenwriter Evan Johnson, this was fertile ground to satirize the inefficacy of world leadership especially in times of crisis. And the punchline to his biggest joke comes with the end credits and the realization that these characters haven’t accomplished a thing. And that’s the whole point.

Maddin and the two Johnsons put together a pitch-perfect cast who seem to be having a ball from the opening moments to the final frame. Chief among them is Cate Blanchett who plays German Chancellor Hilda Ortmann. She’s hosting the G7 Summit at a rural castle in Dankerode, Germany where seven stuffy world power-players come together to discuss an unspecified global crisis.

Joining Hilda is the embattled yet laughably stoic Canadian Prime Minister, Maxime Laplace (Roy Dupuis); the intensely focused British Prime Minister, Cardosa Dewindt (Nikki Amuka-Bird); the overly pragmatic United States President, Edison Walcott (Charles Dance), the chatterbox French President, Sylvain Broulez (Denis Ménochet), the jittery pacifistic Prime Minister of Italy, Antonio Lamorte (Rolando Ravello), and Japan’s Prime Minister, Tatsuro Iwasaki (Takehiro Hira) who the movie seems to forget about until the final 20 minutes.

After a few goofy photo ops, our seven dignitaries settle around a table in a newly built gazebo. There they begin putting together their provisional statement – an illusion of multilateral accomplishment to be shared with the entire world. But things turn upside down after the group discovers they’ve been abandoned. There are no staff members, no security, no cellphone service. To make matters weirder, they find themselves cut off from the castle by zombie-like “bog men” with muddy gelatinous bodies and some pretty twisted habits.

From there we follow our seven petrified leaders as they reveal how poor they are at world crisis management through how horribly they mismanage their own. It becomes evident that these aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer, and in many ways they are personifications of their individual nations – something Maddin, Johnson, and Johnson have a field day with.

“Rumours” is littered with funny details including Dance’s intact British accent, the seemingly endless supply of cured meat in Antonio’s pocket, the group’s crazy obsession with finishing their provisional statement despite a looming apocalypse, and a hysterical third act bit involving an AI chatbot.

It also has its share of head-scratching inclusions. For instance, the sudden appearance of Alicia Vikander whose scenario never makes sense. And what’s with the pink squishy brain the size of a Volkswagen Beetle plopped in the middle of the forest? But if you’re seeking answers to the zaniness you’re already on the wrong track.

“Rumours” is a mannered slice of absurdism that can understandably frustrate with its slow build towards nothing. But if you can get onboard with its audacious approach, it’s hard not to enjoy the pomposity, platitudes and pantsuits. And with such a stellar all-star cast in on the joke, it makes the movie’s blunt-force message not just timely, but often laugh-out-loud hilarious. “Rumours” is now available on VOD.