A needed dose of levity for the eco-movement, Ron Mann's road documentary Go Further has its priorities exactly right. It's funny and anarchic entertainment first, the bearer of alarming news second -- a spoonful of sugar and all that.
Dubbed "the next Bowling For Columbine" at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, it's much less hammering than Michael Moore's work, and more obviously spontaneous.
The premise is simple. Woody Harrelson (who in his non-acting hours is a passionate eco-crusader) hooks up with several like-minded friends for a trip down the Pacific Coast Highway from Oregon to L.A. by bike and hemp-fuelled bus to spread the message of sustainability.
The delight is in the details. The group includes a yoga teacher, a raw food chef and a hemp-activist, but also a junk-food addict who might as well have been lifted from the cast of Jackass.
That guy is Steve Clark, a production assistant on Will And Grace who struck up a friendship with Harrelson when the actor appeared on that sitcom as Grace's boyfriend, and who is shown in Go Further's opening scenes eating a Fatburger. Loud and ready to party hearty for any cause, he is an easy convert for Harrelson's speech about Bovine Growth Hormone and "ice cream with blood in it."
(BHT is pumped into cows in the U.S., to horrific effect according to its accusers. It's illegal for use in Canada).
The movie thus becomes in large part Steve's story. He's the one who becomes a veritable carny for the roadshow as it moves from town to town. And he's the one who -- by way of putting the moves on a college co-ed -- convinces her to put her life on hold and get on the bus. You can never have enough subplots.
The whole enterprise seems deliberately patterned after Ken Kesey's legendary Merry Pranksters hippie-trek of the '60s. And fittingly, the gang visits Kesey himself at his Oregon farm (a few months before his death in November 2001), where he dubs them The Merry Hempsters.
Not all the locals are as welcoming. The reception is sometimes hostile, particularly in the northwest logging towns, where they are greeted at one point with calls of "Go home, Woody Allen!" Elsewhere they find a bevy of interesting characters, including organic farmers and an entrepreneur with a plan for paper production that's harmless to trees. There are road accidents, lots of "dialogue" (Billy Jack it isn't; even the disgruntled locals seem somewhat charmed by Harrelson). Generally it holds up as a strong case for the notion that you can effect change, one person at a time.
Mann's role as archivist is fairly unobtrusive, and he dolls up the film with lighthearted animation and pointed information such that the narrative unfolds in distinct chapters.
The power of the final piece is such that, after the laughs, the message seems invariably to sink in. A hit at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, Go Further inspired more self-improvement resolutions than New Year's Eve.
And that's hard to argue against, no matter your politics.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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