Went to see Bowling for Columbine, the latest documentary movie by Michael Moore, at the rather snazzy Broadway Cinema in town last night.
Eloquent and cogent, shocking and thought-provoking and very, very funny, Bowling for Columbine is an examination of violent attitudes and gun crime in the USA, but touches on many subjects in its pursuit of answers. It's a film with an unashamed agenda, but which paints a picture in which the factors to blame for the USA's violent and fearful culture are perhaps not as obvious or understandable as we might at first suppose.
NRA gun nuts would have you believe that the film is anti-gun, but they've missed the point (the film is certainly quite anti-NRA, but that's somewhat different). A high level of firearm ownership, it shows, doesn't seem to be the reason behind the violence. Rather, it seems to be something in the American psyche.
If there's one film that deserves a more general release this year, it's this one. I wish more people could see it.