Prior Viewings: 1
Even putting aside his politics, Michael Moore's not for everybody. The guy can be annoying, intrusive, entitled, and, as a filmmaker, biased to the point of skewing his own facts in order to prove a point. But when he weaponizes these trollish qualities against people and corporations that deserve it, as is the case with Bowling for Columbine, it can make for a work that's as gratifying as it is insightful.
This documentary is a riveting and powerful look at gun violence in America, using the 1999 Columbine shooting as an entry point. Sure, a lot of this subject matter might feel kinda quaint and obvious today (we hear about a new school shooting every other week now, it seems), but that just proves Moore's point, doesn't it? It shows that, even if we never come to any hard conclusions, this was a conversation that needed - and still needs - to happen if we want to see some change.
And Moore's great about packaging this material in a way that's easy to digest. He uses humour to keep things entertaining (while never taking it so far as to lose the gravity of the situation), and conducts interviews with such confrontation and disdain that you get some wonderfully embarrassing first-hand insight into how full of shit most of these loudmouth gun nuts really are.
I'd call this one essential viewing, but chances are your middle school already showed it to you.
Grade: A
P.S. As a Canadian, I'm slightly dubious of the door-locking segment, amusing as it is. With one or two exceptions, everyone I know has always locked their doors.
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