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Indebted to Guy Maddin, German Expressionism, and Elaine May all at once, . Whereas even the most revisionist takes on American history are shaped by a myopic sense of divine importance and the dick-measuring that tends to come with it, director Matthew Rankin’s leaky snow globe of a movie leans on Canada’s pathological fixation with being second-best; with “simping,” being friend-zoned, and elevating its reputation for polite submission into something that almost seems patriotic if you squint hard enough. “Canada is just one failed orgasm after another,” someone laments towards the end of this unclassifiable wonder, but there’s something to be said for impotence after watching an(other) American president fuck the entire world.

A student of Canadian history in addition to being an accomplished maker of short films, the Winnipeg-born Rankin comes into his debut feature with the confidence of someone who’s been working towards this bugnuts spectacle his entire life,...

With his perverse (and some might say perverted) look at the early life of Canada’s longest-serving Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King, Winnipeg-born, Montreal-based multi-hyphenate Matthew Rankin proves himself far more than simply the artistic heir to fellow Canuck Guy Maddin. His low-budget, high-concept recounting of political life in the Dominion of Canada circa the turn of the 20th century is both satiric and scurrilous; the more familiar one is with Canadian history, the funnier it is. But even without prior knowledge of our neighbor to the north, it can be enjoyed for its combination of supreme creativity, jaw-dropping audacity and amusing tongue-in-cheek dialogue. Following its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival, it was named best Canadian first feature and acquired by U.S. distributor Oscilloscope, which will release it in May.

Like Maddin, Rankin ransacks film, theater and art history for his visual style. Here, he creates...