Mockumentary Maximum Truth lets Ike Barinholtz pull Jacob Wohl over your eyes

Maximum Truth. // Courtesy Momentum Pictures

Directed by David Stassen, the new political comedy Maximum Truth lampoons some of the dumbest Trump-era grifters. As a small mockumentary affair, do you need to rush to a theater to catch this? Probably not. Is it worth 90 minutes of your time at home via VOD, where it is already available? That’s gonna depend on your tolerance for revisiting the antics of the dumbest people during our dumbest time.

[What it actually depends on is whether or not you already know who Will Sommer is. If you do, you’ll find this very much worth your attention.]

In Maximum Truth, a documentary crew follows political grifter Rick Klingman (Ike Barinholtz) as he teams up with his sketchy buddy Simon (Dylan O’Brien) to take down a rival congressional candidate (Max Minghella) via any means necessary… which really means just gluing together the most believable set of lies on hand.

The political satire is barely divorced from the reality of muckraker and scam artist Jacob Wohl, whose press conferences from 2020 remain the stuff of legend in terms of attempting to forward a laughable narrative through the laughter of the press itself. For those that remain Wohl’s attempted stabs at relevance, alongside an equally divorced from reality companion, the framing for this film around an inevitable press conference will seem instantly familiar. This is a one way ticket to Cringe City, with Barinholtz as conductor.

Part of what holds the film back, or enhances it wildly depending on your mileage, is your stance on whether the oafish behavior and psychotic drive of our cast manages to one-up the real people and real situations from three years back. For an outsider, much of this might read as too cartoonishly stupid to give your time to. For the insider, Maximum Truth adheres so closely to the events and fictions of it anti-heroes that it can feel like this is just a recreation of the true events from a new perspective.

Maximum Truth. // Courtesy Momentum Pictures

Whatever your approach to the material, Barinholtz and O’Brien’s dedication to going full shill/empty shell is hoist aloft by their sheer charm and devious likability. While the narrative plays almost too close to actual events, the end sum feels a bit like political journalism from 2020, delivered by Barinholtz over a campfire, acting out all the roles. Much like his similarly politically powered satire The Oath, there’s a lot this flick owes to an extended universe of guest comedic actors. When Truth manages to delve into asides about the greater right-wing grifter-sphere, the cameos here from Kiernan Shipka. Josh Meyers, Jena Friedman, and Beth Grant, make up the most memorable chunks of the screentime.

Maximum Truth is in theaters and on VOD today.

Maximum Truth. // Courtesy Momentum Pictures