by MATTHEW HAYS

Undoubtedly the event movie of the season, Fahrenheit 9/11 arrives with very few surprises. What were you expecting from Michael Moore? He hates Bush. He thinks the invasion of Iraq is disastrous. He thinks the state of the world is insane, and that's reflected in his absurdist, mischievous essay documentary style. For those of us who share his views, there is much to appreciate about Fahrenheit: in broad strokes, Moore clearly lays out the arguments as to why this war was wrongheaded and why Bush is a dangerous fool.

Lord knows, he's got more than enough fodder in the current U.S. President, a man who has handed the most ironic footage to leftist documentary filmmakers since Ronald Reagan. Bush is the star of this movie - a Keystone Kop gone terribly wrong; a chump thrust into the history books, beginning with a questionable election victory and later with the terrorist attacks of 9/11. One of the film's most shocking sequences unfolds as Bush listens to a children's story being read in a Florida classroom on that day. An aid enters to tell the President that a second plane has flown into the second tower of the World Trade Center. America is under attack. Bush continues to listen to the story for almost 10 minutes, in what seems an eternity, until someone re-enters to drag him out of the place.

But Moore critics will again find reason to fault the filmmaker. As an essayist, he's often contradictory and more than a bit muddled. His films are less about cogent arguments and more about a fusion of emotionally wrenching moments, anti-corporate agit prop and moral outrage over government collusion. Moore certainly opens himself up to charges of appearing too glib, while also being glaringly manipulative. (No one milks a grieving mother like he does.)

But I would also point to the things that Moore has done very well. The juxtaposition of his images, as in Roger & Me and Bowling for Columbine, do create a sense of urgency, anxiety and exhilaration. The man knows how to mindfuck. And there is one standout scene that touches on brilliance: when depicting the pandemonium of 9/11, Moore shows us nothing but a black screen, filling the soundtrack with the cries and screams of New Yorkers as they panicked in the streets. Moore was the first filmmaker to put images of the planes flying into those buildings on the big screen in Bowling; here, he sensibly chose not to. The images of the most mediated catastrophe in history are so firmly etched into our collective brain that they unfold as we hear the noise.

For any misgivings I may have about Fahrenheit 9/11, I can't fault Moore. Indeed, he preaches to the converted, but in an election year when so many would actually consider voting for Bush or Harper, clearly, not enough people have been converted. This movie needs to be seen: if you know any Conservatives or Republicans, drag them to it. If you see only one movie this summer, make it Fahrenheit 9/11.

Fahrenheit 9/11 opens Friday, June 25

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