Anthem

Michael Moore, the dyspeptic documentarian of Roger & Me, need not worry about any competition in the crankiness department from twentysomethings Shainee Gabel and Kristin Hahn. Their Anthem, in which they drive cross-country to interview celebrities and activists about the American Dream, has all the bite of a junior-high-school civics assignment.

Perhaps their first subject is the best: a conference with then presidential adviser George Stephanopoulos is interrupted mid sentence by a call from the big guy himself. Unfortunately, everybody else gets to finish his or her thoughts, and what unfolds is a long litany of platitudes punched up with bouncy hand-held photography, lots of arty landscapes, time-lapse photography, and many shots of disheveled motel rooms. A long "heavy" encounter with Michael Stipe is embarrassing; even a surefire subject like John Waters comes off bland and banal. Perhaps Hunter Thompson emerges with the most dignity; drugged into incoherence, he doesn't utter an intelligible sentence. If this is Generation X optimism, I'll stick with the cynics. At the Coolidge Corner.

-- Peter Keough