Movie Review: Slacker Uprising

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Slacker Uprising (2008)–No Stars

There’s a reason why Michael Moore’s Slacker Uprising was distributed for free via the Internet: No one would pay good money to see this movie. The dull, dour narrative, which follows Moore’s college tour ahead of the 2004 presidential election, promotes the right wing characterization of Moore as a shameless self-promoter. It rarely works as an informational tool. It doesn’t even reach the level of a mediocre concert film. It’s a bad movie.

I was tempted to finish that last paragraph by writing “all politics aside.” But unlike Moore’s masterful weaving of tales of corporate greed hitting the little guy, Slacker Uprising is all politics. It’s painful preaching to the choir that feeds off the steaming hatred many people have for our current president. It lacks a genuine attempt to move forward. No documentary about the next generation of voters should spend so much time looking in the rear view mirror.

Slacker Uprising is, at its best, a film that illustrates just how badly the Democrats failed in 2004 (and possibly how they will fail again in 2008). People’s disgust for George W. Bush was the only thing motivating voters in the presidential election four years ago. In this film, we see it when mothers and brothers rail against Bush for their family member’s death in the Iraq War. We see it when Moore and others lament the “rich man’s war.” We see it when ardent Bush supporters come out in force to heckle or pray at Moore’s stops. We see it when those Bush supporters are, rightly or wrongly, made to look a fool through malicious local news interview montages.

Every time Bush’s name is uttered or hollered, you get the sense that there’s little else holding anything, particularly this film, together. The same notion is bubbling to the surface this year, in part because someone nodding along with Slacker Uprising is more concerned with what has happened and not what should happen.

Moore is a better filmmaker than this. His other films (Roger & Me, The Big One, and Fahrenheit 9/11) are successful pieces of cinema because their intensity is palpable when I watch them today. Slacker Uprising will only become less important as time passes. And while it still wouldn’t have been a great film if he released it ahead of the 2006 midterm elections, at least I would have felt something. Today, the film is barely alive.

Slacker Uprising, directed by Michael Moore, is now available for download at SlackerUprising.com or Amazon.com.