This almost never happens: a movie that is so hot off the presses, so up-to-the-minute in its references, that it’s hard to know what to make of it. It’s too close.

Yes, we know the basic things. Yes, “Coastal Elites” is worth seeing. Yes, it’s a good movie. The acting is strong. The writing is funny and affecting. It is difficult to take your eyes away from it. But what does itmean? Whatwillit mean in the future?

“Coastal Elites,” which premieres Saturday, Sept. 12, on HBO, is comparable to one of those World War II movies filmed very early in the conflict, when it was still not entirely clear which side would win. Today we watch those movies and understand that these are portraits of a people galvanizing their strength. They may have been scared, but they were on their way to victory, and it changes how we view them.

这部电影描述了一种不同的war — a cultural war, a political war, a war for the character and direction of the country. It was created in a moment of uncertainty and anxiety, which is reflected in the filming itself: It’s a series of monologues, recorded at a social distance.

But what makes this film particularly remarkable is that it’s being released into that same uncertainty and anxiety. We don’t know how this story is going to resolve. So, it’s a compelling watch, but it’s not an easy watch.

There’s no sugarcoating this: “Coastal Elites” is about the rage and genuine horror that a portion of the population feels with regard to President Trump and where he is taking the country. That is precisely the subject of the film, presented through the prism of five monologues, written byPaul Rudnickand spoken by characters of various ages and stations in life.

‘Coastal Elites’ affectionately goes beneath surface of liberal stereotypes

It starts with Miriam (Bette Midler), awidow in New York who describes a hostile encounter with a MAGA-hat-wearing man in a coffee shop. The monologue is full of funny asides.(Talking about the theater, she says she has nothing against people performing onstage naked, “But it’s always the wrong people.”)But the story it tells is a frustrating one, in which a woman of intelligence and sensitivity comes into collision with a thug.

That monologue takes place in January. By the time of the next monologue, the coronavirus has already hit the U.S. A gay actor, played by Dan Levy, has an online therapy session, in which he recounts his subtly demeaning auditions to play a gay superhero.

These first two characters couldn’t really be called “coastal elites,” except in an ironic sense, but the third qualifies as the real thing.

Issa Rae卡莉,一个有钱的女人去了school with Ivanka Trump and finds herself reuniting with her in a White House visit. She finds, to her horror, that Ivanka expects her to head up a “Women for Trump” or “Blacks for Trump” organization for the 2020 election.

The fourth monologue is spoken by Sarah Paulson as a wellness guru who goes into an anguished tirade about herrelatives who wear MAGA hats.

The final monologue features Kaitlyn Dever as a young nurse from Wyoming, working in New York during the height of the pandemic. Unlike the other characters, she’s apolitical, just a person of warm impulses trying to do her best.

“Coastal Elites” captures the mood of the country — or perhaps the mood on the coasts — as we head into the general election, with the pandemicand the Black Lives Matter protests still in the headlines.

Two years ago, Ike Barinholtz’s “The Oath” distilled the anger and fear present at the beginning of Trump’s term, but “Coastal Elites” gives us the despair and the exhaustion of the current moment, this hopelessness in the midst of hope, this feeling that the sky will never brighten and that the night will go on forever.

Only time will tell the true meaning of “Coastal Elites.” To see it today is to not know whether Rudnick and directorJay Roachhave recorded the dying squeals of a defeated humanism, or whether this is the portrait of a people who have had enough and are about to make a change. The movie leans toward hope. Audiences may take a wait-and-see attitude.

In any case, “Coastal Elites” arrives on HBO as a piece of instant history.

N“Coastal Elites”:Comedy drama. Starring Bette Midler, Dan Levy, Issa Rae, Sarah Paulson and Kaitlyn Dever. Directed by Jay Roach. (Unrated. 90 minutes.) Debuts Saturday, Sept. 12, on HBO.