Frequent character actor Ike Barinholtz (“Suicide Squad,” “The Lego Movie 2”)) is both the lead actor and co-writer of “Maximum Truth,” a “mockumentary” (yes, I know, been there, done that) in which a couple of unseen filmmakers follow a self-deluded Los Angeles hustler named Rick Klingman (Barinholtz) around after he establishes a company called, yes, “Maximum Truth.” Rick is hired to dig up dirt on a Los Angeles candidate for Congress named Antonio Kelly-Zhang (Max Minghella) on behalf of a possibly (all right, probably) demented and cackling Beverly Hills dowager named Mary Jo Nackerson (the fine character actor Beth Grant). Ms. Nackerson acquired her vast fortune from her late husband Wilbur, a fracking magnate, who liked to hunt big game.

Yes, “Maximum Truth” has a definite “Chinatown” vibe with Rick Klingman as an even more high-strung and aggressive truth-seeker and dirt-digger than Jack Nicholson’s J.J. Gittes. Rick’s right-hand-man is Simon Tarnum (Dylan O’Brien, “The Maze Runner”), another low-grade hustler with remarkably hairy legs, a need to work out twice a day, an ever-present backwards baseball cap and an aversion to anything with sleeves. Simon might need to have Rick put him up in the condo that Rick shares with his “assistant” and roommate Marco (Tony Rodriguez, “Jury Duty”).

“Maximum Truth” is really quite amusing. Rick styles himself as “a dirty trickster.” He once had a beef with Seth Rogen (playing himself) over a play about a gay Abraham Lincoln. Rick has sworn to go to Rogen’s grave and “spray diarrhea” all over Rogen’s gravestone. That’s about as dirty as a trickster can get. Needless to say, Rick has been the victim of haters and trolls and knows a lead reporter at the Daily Beast. Rick’s mind wanders. After telling us that he “loves Asia,” he goes off a “canned dolphin” tear. Rick claims to have caught a tape worm on a cruise ship and lost 200 pounds. He wants to examine the possibility that Kelly-Zhang is “a demon.”

For his part, Simon has been the sole vendor of a misspelled supplement called “Shredded” that might possibly contain illegal substances. He keeps his inventory in his (or somebody’s) garage. Mark Proksch of “What We Do in the Shadows” is very disturbing as a sexual deviant who enjoys a cinnamon bun with a coke and Jack and offers to incriminate Kelly-Zhang. Kiernan Shipka shows up to a Maximum Truth fund raiser, toting an assault rifle that Rick inadvertently fires into the Nackerson mansion ceiling. Rick calls a press conference. But the evidence he gathers keeps disappearing. I don’t like having a large amount of dialogue delivered directly to the camera. But Barinholtz and O’Brien make a great couple of lunatic buddies. Director David Stassen (“History of the World: Part 2”), who co-wrote the screenplay wiith Barinholtz, has fashioned a very amusing satire about our current culture of lying, unashamed stupidity, and constant combativeness. Forget it, Rick. It’s Chinatown.

(“Maximum Truth” contains profanity and sexually suggestive content)

Rated R. On VOD