Less is Moore, This One's Free

*Ed note: We are fully aware that this film was released at the end of September. Please blame editorial slackitude and ACL, not the author, for this review's late appearance. But rest assured that the review and the film are still fully relevant as we approach the November election. Keep reading.

If you smell something fishy emanating from the low-key release of Michael Moore's new documentary, turns out your nose "knows." Not a lot of press has come out from Michigan's man of the people, and you can't catch it at the Alamo. Instead he has released Slacker Uprising online, free for anyone to download.

This move, which no doubt will be soon dubbed "In Rainbows" (e.g., "Moore released his film in rainbows last week" — a new idiom!) may reflect the quality of the story's material. Moore has some faith in it, because he bought back the distribution rights from the Weinsteins to broadcast it over the series of tubes. That implies that they'd been sitting on it for a while, and although that's part of the Weinstein reputation, it looks like the material just wasn't so hot to start with.

The premise is Moore's tour around college campuses prior to the 2004 presidential elections. You remember 2004: Fahrenheit 9/11 just came out, you went to the theater, and along with a few million others, were (at least partially) blown away. Then you remembered you lived in Texas and a country, that uhhh, didn't get around to seeing it.

So what did we expect from a free movie? The least we expected was some striking travelogue; a journey and maybe a meeting of the minds. Perhaps a sprinkle of muckraking, a dusting of killer, unexpected footage, stagemanship, and quick, incisive editing wouldn't be too much to ask. Well, that's what we hoped for.

Instead what emerges is a pretty dull cataloging of college campuses and swing states with few of the telltale Moore signs. Kevin Smith's lecture tour had lots more going for it. The main problem? We know the ending already, and the film can't seem to drum up enough drama to fill in the middle.

The good:
A greatest hits reel of commentary by Republican demonstrators outside Moore's appearances. Key comments include a woman who plans to vote for Bush because God is with him, a six year old boy who yells "Michael Moore sucks!," and a host of protesters who haven't seen or read a single product from the man, because they know most of his lies anyway, and they don't want to give Moore any money.

Scenes from Iraqi veterans who showed up to speak or just watch Moore, are uniquely powerful, especially considering the climate of late 2004.

The lame:
If Fahrenheit 9/11 was the firebreathing show, this is the anti-climax and hangover. There just isn't as much quality footage to play with here. Instead, we're bombarded with what probably amounts to an eighth of the film — footage of crowds from every swing state in the land. Too many stadiums, not enough time with real people.

If we're going to see what amounts to a documentary of a college tour, in this case, something that rests entirely on Moore himself, strangely, there's no behind the scenes footage to speak of. The bias here is clear: it's Moore's movie, and it can't help to be mostly about him. But surely a third party's film would have given more insight into the film's only genuine character.

Unfortunately, just like Moore's 2004 efforts went, essentially, in the shitter, it seems his footage followed. But if you're asking yourself "should I watch it?," that may not be such a hard sell. It's free. It's occasionally insightful. And it's a good reminder about how much it sucked to lose. If you wouldn't mind a blast from that past, fire it up. If your little cousin just turned 18, pass this link along.

How to watch it:

You can hit up the mailing list on Slackeruprising.com where they describe every single way to watch it.

We saw it via Amazon's excellent online streaming in full screen. Sending it via S-Video to the "TV" worked flawlessly. Arguably the best format is iTunes, though the 1G+ download may test your patience.