The movie was sold out--damn liberals. Unfortunately, tonight's happy collision of an untapped entertainment budget, a willing Gabe-sitter, and free-time isn't going to happen again for a long time. Michael Moore is going to have to struggle by without my $8.50.

Also, at the theater, no protesters. Bummer.
8:14:37 PM  #  

We just arranged a sitter for Gabe tonight, so we can go see Fahrenheit 9/11. I'm really geeked about this, partially because going to a movie on the Friday it opens is a rare event (hell, seeing a movie before it hits the $2.00 cheapo-theater is rare), and, obviously, it's Fahrenheit 9/11. I'm hoping that there will be some sort of Thing at the theater--wholesome Republican protesters, or a mob of college radicals, but, Toledo being Toledo, I suspect it will just be a few paunchy, pale-skinned thirty-somethings fondly remembering their radical, college, pre-kid, pre-Honda Accord selves. And even those will be lost in a crowd of Dodgeball-seeing high schoolers.

The best review I've seen is Christopher Borelli's in The Blade (Borelli is way too good for Toledo or The Blade). Moore's partisanship doesn't scare him off, and he finds both the strengths and the weaknesses of the film, recognizing the parts where Moore displays real artistry, regardless of the politics.

Chances are, though, you already know what you think about Fahrenheit 9/11 - well, Fahrenheit 9/11 already knows what it thinks, too. It's a lot of things: an op-ed column with visuals, a polemic bristling with anger, a plea to vote Bush out of office come November. But do not call it a documentary. It doesn't dig up any new information. And what it's not is fair and balanced, and it doesn't have to be. You could even say this is a good thing; for two hours Moore makes a forceful case (and occasionally self-contradictory argument) that a political regime that doesn't extend compassion to its most disenfranchised, to the poor who fight its wars and suffer under its economic policies, hardly deserves the benefit of any doubt. Moore's movie comes from righteous anger; he flashes official documents from the public record, piles on video images and playful winks until they gather the headlong rush of an avalanche, never stopping to connect the dots. He's on fire, and there is no talking to the guy. To an extent it's why Fahrenheit 9/11 is his most powerful work.

The review in Slate--the real review, not Hitchen's hatchet job--is good too, and rightly puts the film in context, particularly for liberals who have been troubled by Michael Moore's approach to the truth in his recent work.

Fahrenheit 9/11 must be viewed in the context of the Iraq occupation and the torrent of misleading claims that got us there. It must be viewed in the context of Rush Limbaugh repeating the charge that Hillary Clinton had Vince Foster murdered in Fort Marcy Park, or laughing off the exposure of Valerie Plame when, had this been a Democratic administration, he'd be calling every day for the traitor's head. It must be viewed in the context of Ann Coulter calling for the execution of people who disagree with her. It must be viewed in the context of another new documentary, the superb The Hunting of the President, that documents[~]irrefutably[~]the lengths to which the right went to destroy Bill Clinton. Moore might be a demagogue, but never[~]not even during Watergate[~]has a U.S. administration left itself so open to this kind of savaging.

5:55:49 PM  #