Slacker Uprising (NR, 2008)

Following documentarian and political activist/agitator Michael Moore on a 20-state, 62-city "get out the vote" tour on the eve of the 2004 election, SLACKER UPRISING chronicles Moore's travels and tribulations -- including controversy as Republican and right-leaning groups try to keep him from speaking at various university campuses across the nation. Slacker Uprising also includes several musical performances, from artists as diverse as Eddie Vedder, Joan Baez, Steve Earle, and more, as well as man-on-the-street interviews and public speeches by political activists and celebrities like Roseanne Barr and Viggo Mortensen.

Moore has always been a big part of his own films -- the blend of astute, well-researched political commentary and his big, burly personality is what makes his films like Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 911 as good (and interesting) as they are. But in Slacker Uprising, the focus seems to be almost entirely on Moore, with his personality and public persona the main subject and topic of the film -- and the movie suffers for it. Much of Slacker Uprising consists of watching Moore receive standing ovations or being lauded by his fans or cursed by his foes; that narrow focus turns the film from a political documentary into a weird kind of vanity project by a writer-director-activist who would probably insist that he has no vanity.

And, bluntly, Moore's get-out-the-vote shenanigans (including giving Ramen noodles and clean underwear to youths who register to vote) are a little sad to watch, considering that they didn't work; watching Moore exhort people to vote for John Kerry for more than 90 minutes is like watching a lengthy, hysterical pep rally held on behalf of a team that lost. Moore is capable of much stronger work than this, and the fact that Slacker Uprising is available for free on the Internet may just be a smoke screen for the fact that it's hard to imagine a movie studio paying the cost of distributing it in theaters. Moore's other films, love them or hate them, have at least looked at serious issues; the main focus of Slacker Uprising seems to be on how wonderful Michael Moore is.

Studio: Dog Eat Dog Films
Director: Michael Moore
Cast: Eddie Vedder, Michael Moore, Viggo Mortensen
Genre: Documentary
Run time: 100 minutes
Theatrical release: September 23, 2008
DVD release: October 7, 2008
MPAA Rating: NR