Traverse City Film Festival – Day 5 (Roger & Me, In the Loop)

That’s a wrap for the 5th Annual Traverse City Film Festival, and it featured a great selection of films and some surprise guests, as well. I didn’t expect to see Patton Oswalt at the screening of "Big Fan," so that was fun. He’s a very funny guy.

Day Five was a mixed bag. First, my son and I saw "In the Loop," a BBC film directed by Armando Iannucci, whose credits include assorted TV shows, including "I’m Alan Partridge," "Lab Rats," "Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle," and "Genius."

"In the Loop" is a political comedy told in a documentary-style format. The main story is whether or not the U.S. President and the U.K. Prime Minister should back a war. But the action really takes place in the lower echelons. U.S. General Miller (James Gandolfini) and British Secretary of State Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) are not keen on a war, but after Simon accidentally backs military action on TV, he suddenly has lots of friends and fans in Washington, DC.

First of all, there’s a LOT of swearing and f-bombs in this movie. It’s not so much that I’m worried about my son – he’s almost 15 and can take it – but rather, *I* wasn’t that into it. It’s like HBO’s "Deadwood" – the swearing is actually distracting from the storyline. But other than that, this is a funny movie about politics, bureaucracy, and the stuff that goes on in the inner bowels of any government.

Then we saw Michael Moore’s "Roger & Me"; it’s the 20th anniversary of the documentary about Flint, Michigan, and Moore’s attempts to talk with Ford CEO Roger Smith about the decline of the auto industry. The movie holds up, and is just as relevant, if not more so, today.

After the screening, Moore was interviewed by his pal Larry Charles, and also answered a few questions from the audience. The film had a very low budget, which is amazing considering that much of what they filmed went into the movie. It’s not like now, where you can film 1000 hours relatively cheaply and then pick and choose what goes into the film.

I think he said 10 minutes of film cost $400 at the time; plus, they were learning as they went along, so a lot of the film was accidentally ruined when the camera opened or whatever.

Contrary to what you might think, Michael Moore is actually a very shy, introverted guy — and I can attest to this because I’ve interviewed him before. The Michael Moore you see on Fox News and CNN is not the same one who might be sitting behind you in the State Theater in Traverse City on a Tuesday afternoon.

For that reason, it was hard for him to come to terms with being IN "Roger & Me" and seeing himself on camera. But it’s a documentary, and I think it really added to the film to have him in there.

He also told one story about how they were filming a family with kids being evicted from their Flint home on Christmas Eve. He and the film crew were scraping up some money to pay this woman’s rent, but the eviction officer said it was against the law to be giving money to him to keep this family in their home.

Anyway, it’s a great film, and you should really see it if you haven’t yet. It’s both gripping and depressing, and a great example of what a documentary can be with a limited budget and filmmaking knowledge. Buy it on Amazon.

Images: IFC Films; Amazon.com