Roger & Me

Michael Moore's best work. This is one I can trust.

Not a fan of Moore's style, but this showcases his strengths while keeping his weaknesses mostly in check. There are many moments of tragi-comic contrasts, which afforded some laughter in what would otherwise be a film that only serves to get you angry and frustrated. If there's one thing Moore excels at it's using editing to make simple but effective contrasts that highlight the issues at hand. It allows the film to go beyond just GM into a broader criticism of the economic system.

Well edited documentary that uses dark humour to soften the real human tragedy.

OK, it's dishonest, but it's also screamingly funny

Moore didn't just make a verite documentary following events in front of him. And he didn't retell historical events. Instead, he presented a story as a mix of op-ed and stand-up film. He's a skilled director, capable of gallows humor that'd fit in Doctor Strangelove. And while other 80's comedies ignored the heartbreaking impact of Ronald Reagan on working people, here he showed a community being placated by his cruel policies. Hilarious & the rare picture worthy of a post-screening discussion.

A must-see.

It's probably Moore's best work and much of the credit of that goes to how personal the subject was to him. It doesn't hurt that it was his first movie so he didn't have the same ego he brings to later films.

Rather sad and amusing when you consider how accurate this documentary predicted the long hard descent of the American automobile industry.

A good documentary even though I went in blindly thinking it was Michael Moore confronting Roger Ebert about his review of Canadian Bacon.

An intelligent, funny and important movie. Possibly Michael Moore's best, because its the most personal.

Interesting and obviously very personal documentary from Moore. I wanted Michael to punch some of the people in the face a lot but instead he just looks confused all the time. Worth watching to see how much fatter he got.

Moore's first and least exciting movie. Much of that can probably be attributed to the budget ($160K vs. the $4M spent on "Columbine", the $6M spent on "Fahrenheit", and the $9M spent on "Sicko". Still, it is an interesting film and Moore is clearly passionate about every subject he takes on. However, he falsifies information to prove his points. For example, in this film, he completely manipulates the timeline of events to add dramatic affect. Some of them are as many as 6 years off.

Very funny movie. Soars where all other Moore films fall.

Genuinely stirring doc that ranks as Moore's finest hour. Keeps the focus small, actually allowing the residents of Flint, MI to speak their minds and allow us room to emphathise, while also providing Moore with the requisite muckracking opportunities.

This is Michael Moore's first documentary and it is a very entertaining piece of work. It mainly looks at the devastation of his hometown Flint after numerous GM plant closings. If you are a Moore fan then you should definitely check this one out.

Only Michael Moore can dazzle me with delicious displays of ineptitude and crushing poverty. "IT'S JUST A LITTLE BUNNY, THE LITTLE BUNNY IS DEAD D:"

Quite the thinker. I enjoyed the contrasting of the fancy pants Christmas party with the poor folks being evicted.

A ballsy, personal film that portrays the dangerously growing class divide in America more candidly and effectively than any dramatic film could, mainly in the way it intercuts between a grunt's eye view of struggling poor and disconnected rich, but also in the subversive way it uses such Americana as full-masted flagpoles atop abandoned factories and Beach Boys blaring over the ghost town Flint has become.

Moore's debut showcases him at his best and worst - he's always at his best when playing blatant provocateur, even if his "stunts" in pursuit of Smith become repetitive after a time; at his worst when presenting blatant didactism as sanctimonious objectivity (his rather cruel, cheap-shot "gotcha" with a potential Miss America is painful to watch). Still, as a man on a mission he's more entertaining than not, and it's hard to argue with the film's underlying sentiments regarding "big business."

Indication number one of Michael Moore's take on reporting the facts.

Regardless of how it may mess with the facts, it's a cleverly put-together film, with moments like The Beach Boys montage perfectly treading the line of irony and sincerity. What's crazy is how little Flint has changed in 25 years. If anything, it has only gotten worse.

A very personal and thoughtful documentary about a dying city. While not as simplistic as some of the issues are portrayed, you cannot argue with its effectiveness.

As a Michael Moore fan, i did enjoy this movie. Im not going to buy in to every one of his opinions and take every thing he says as fact. But a very good film maker, with some very important things to say.

Once you kill a horse, you should stop beating it. Worthy of a 1/2 hour, well-edited attack.

Uncomfortable but absolutely necessary filmmaking.

A good deal before Michael Moore became the fat socialist weasel he is today. This is very heartfelt (where most of his other stuff is very forced, choreographed and tacked on).

Pretty great.

Michael Moore is just the worst.

Manipulative, but well put together and coherent.

I don’t like Moore’s polemic, irrational & fallacious style - even when we agree - but this documentary needed to be made and he did well.

87.500

I really want to like Michael Moore's brand of liberal populism, I really do, but this is just so reductive and navel-gazing, and his ambush-style approach is just grating. Manages to hit a few targets with a razor-sharp ironic precision when he takes on the obliviousness of the rich to the suffering of the poor.

Moore's sentimental, kind-of-investigative documentary might not be always contundent, but always deserves a close look. This is his most personal film, and maybe also the most painful one.

Ending with a Beach Boys song.... oh Moore you clever rascal, you know just how to disarm me.

Michael Moore was hilarious as he ran down Roger Smith to talk about his hometown. Politics aside, it was a well-done documentary.

Pretty good documentary.

The best of Moore's manipulative documentaries. Interesting to watch as a Michigander.

Okay Documentary

A personal film about his hometown, this Michael Moore film is wonderful.

Decent documentary. I cannot help wondering: the storyline presents the facts in such an orderly way, is this not just Michael Moore ordering things the way he sees fit?

Entertaining and sad to be sure but there is so much left out of the story that it's hard to say it's anything more than filtered anger. If I had seen this in 1989 and without the knowledge of the complicated realities of running a business the size of General Motors, I probably would have been extremely disheartened.

While I am sympathetic to the disgust at businessmen who sacrifice their workers on the altar of profits, I don't feel this film accomplishes much toward getting into complexities of this situation. The "me" in the title is really important in this sense: the film is about Moore and getting his viewpoint across. In this way, he is using the situation in Flint in a way that echoes what GM did, but the people are getting less out of it. I must say, though: the living statues scene is magnificent.

Michael Moore has an agenda and is not in the least objective in any of his "documentaries." But, he is quite entertaining and always gives you something to think about so long as you can fill in some blanks on your own and you don't leave your brain at the door. This is his first and one of his best.

This is vintage Michael Moore. While he is still a brilliant advocate for the people, Roger & Me was made when he was unknown and relied on his wit more than his reputation. Beautiful stuff.

Not a very balanced documentary, as one would expect from Moore, but still very interesting, especially as a MI native familiar with the area.

effective Doc

Seen: 2.

I paid good money to see this movie in the theater. What a piece of junk. Trite and one-sided. Skinned rabbits add a gross out factor that dropped my score 5 more points.

The first film Michael Moore made and made a true impact on documentary film making.