A wild and often hilarious trawl through the sleazier ends of Russian media sensationalism during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Our New President is also so radically decontextualized as to be almost worthless, maybe even dangerous. Russia obviously has its own Glenn Becks and YouTube crazies, but other than the cheap yuks, what of it? Pandering to the new McCarthyism of the pseudoleft with dollops of Evil Putin porn only clouds the film’s gonzo entertainment value, revealing its dangerous blind spots and ideological bent.

It’s doubly ironic considering we’re treated to the spectacle of a Russia Today employee being chided by the boss for objecting to institutional bias. The balls of this film! Similarly, it mocks the probably marginal Russian belief that Hillary Clinton was cursed by an unearthed Siberian mummy, but seems reasonably comfortable hinting its support of the no less deranged fantasy of American “democracy” sabotaged by dastardly foreign troll farms. Really, besides the style of consent being manufactured here—at a time when war is a real possibility—what’s the diff? 

Georgia Straight, May 2018