In 2016, after a nasty election cycle exposed a cultural rift, many Americans were left asking, “what the hell just happened?” For underground cartoonist Matt Furie, the question was more surreal: his character Pepe the Frog had become a political pawn — tweeted by Donald Trump, condemned by Hillary Clinton, and declared a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League.

The film looks at how Pepe’s transformation—from stoner cartoon frog in 2007, to extremist icon in 2016—runs parallel to America’s own transformation into a more divisive, mean-spirited, and tribalist place. It’s a Frankenstein monster story of an artist battling to regain control of his mutated creation.