Roger & Me

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Mason M The beginning and end are good, but it slumps a lot in the middle Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 09/12/24 Full Review Dave S Michael Moore cut his teeth on guerrilla documentaries with 1989's Roger & Me. After General Motors starts closing its plants in Flint in order to reap larger profits by conducting business elsewhere, Moore embarks on a relentless campaign to interview CEO Roger Smith, along the way meeting with former employees who have been severely impacted by the loss of employment. The film is a devastating examination of the perils of capitalism as corporate greed and unbridled avarice replace human decency and compassion. Whether the audience agrees with Moore's politics or not, there is no room to question his unbridled passion for justice and fairness. As with all of his documentaries, he sometimes takes unnecessary shots at the naïve and unsuspecting (was it really necessary to include the Miss Michigan interview?), but the film remains an impactful indictment of capitalism gone mad. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 09/12/23 Full Review kyle c I'll admit that documentaries aren't usually my favorite types of movies, but I had heard really good things about this one (plus it's all about Flint, MI which is not far from where I grew up) so I gave it a shot. It's certainly an interesting and informative watch, although it occasionally lacks some direction and conciseness. The best parts of the film are when it focuses on individual stories and how they tie into the larger politics of the situation, rather than giving a plainly informational account. Also, there are a few pretty brutal and gruesome shots of people and animals being killed, which I found really disturbing while only occasionally adding value to the film. It's powerful stuff and it's gained a lot of relevance with the further deterioration and corruption of Flint and Michigan as a whole. Even though it doesn't quite come to a satisfying end, I still really enjoyed watching it. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review William L "Lot of people say that there's nothing to do in Flint. HA! Ha, I say! HA! I mean, how many cities have their own PGA Tour event? Not that many. We have one, right here." (Said totally non-sarcastically by a Flint resident) Michael Moore is a tough filmmaker for me; he is consistently pushy and his films are ripe for experiences of secondhand embarassment as people are caught in uncomfortable situations, recognizing the role (however small) that they've played in some tragedy or injustice. But at the same time, he brings a dark comedy to sincere social issues, delivers top-notch editing for effect (sometimes to the detriment of the authenticity of his content), and his pressing demeanor is explicitly necessary to get the insight that he needs to make films on subjects that people would prefer not to speak about. More than 30 years down the line, not much has changed in the social or economic conflicts that America is experiencing, it's just the internet that has made things more visible and more polarized. You'll see plenty of old people playing golf or hanging out at garden parties talking about how the working class is lazy, justification from marketers on how losing your job is actually freedom at work, and a whole lot of average people trying to get by in an economic system that doesn't care about them. Moore taps into the sense of modern America beneath the blinking Christmas lights with candid interviews and bleakly hilarious tonal comparisons, touching on the wealth gap, the uncaring nature of capitalism, and the thin veil of PR that smoothes it over, all to produce the crappy GM cars of the '80s. As good as any of Moore's documentaries, particularly when it comes to the aggravatingly simplisitic way that people write off the suffering that they don't have to endure; I just wish that the director's other films didn't end up with him coming off as excessively self-reverential as he often does. I'm having a hard time thinking of something more tone-deaf than a bunch of upper-middle class people each paying $100 to dress up as prisoners, party, and spend a night in the brand new prison that their collapsing town has built because the old prison is overflowing with people convicted due to a loss of opportunities apart from crime. (3.5/5) Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/05/22 Full Review Audience Member Three words that made the film enjoyable: Bob Eubanks Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review stephen b As much as Michael Moore gets on my nerves, but he can make a good movie. He can be a little pushy with some interviewees who didn't do anything themselves to deserve it, but he tells a pretty heart wrenching story. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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