Hardly anyone has seen it, but already everyone has an opinion. (Right-wingers are, perhaps predictably, labeling it “snuff” and “porn” without benefit of actually having seen the film.) And now those of us who weren’t at the Toronto Film Festival, where the film was celebrated, can get our first glimpse of the film, which was snapped up by distributor Newmarket Films and will open in the U.S. in limited release on October 27.

The trailer, you see, began showing in theaters this past Friday, and it is now viewable online. Rapid-fire — no pun intended — and electric with staccato news footage of angry antiwar protests and grainy security camera video, a cacophony of shouts and sirens, and imagery of chaos and confusion, it’s got that urgent breaking-news feel. Word is that the faux documentary, by British filmmaker Gabriel Range, is actually a “retrospective” that looks back from several years after the October 2007 assassination of George W. Bush, exploring the ramifications to the U.S. and the world in the aftermath, and so the film itself is probably not as heart-pounding as the trailer. But the trailer pushes the same kinds of buttons that I have no doubt the film will push: our fears about the moment-to-moment uncertainty regarding the state of the world on both a global and a local level, about our worries that any single event could suddenly have an amplified impact on our society. This trailer — and the feeling of edgy unease it leaves you with — points to a provocative and, in the current political environment, downright daring film. I can’t wait to see it, and I imagine it’ll leave me feeling pretty darn uncomfortable.

Death of a President at IMDB
two more clips from the film at Radar Online

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MaryAnn Johanson
author of The Totally Geeky Guide to The Princess Bride
minder of FlickFilosopher.com