Perhaps the most curious omission from the movie Grassroots is that there's no mention at all of the classic "Simpsons" episode "Marge vs. the Monorail."
Grassroots is a movie where bad ideas, because they're the ones championed by the "correct" side, are king. It never acknowledges that sometimes idealism is just another kind of manipulation.
Factor in a questionable use of 9/11 footage, and this is one film as misguided as the business-as-usual subject it aims to critique.
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Village VoiceNick Schager
Village VoiceNick Schager
By ultimately softening its stance toward McIver, Grassroots disingenuously has it both ways, reducing politics first to a David-versus-Goliath adventure, and then to an everyone-is-cool bowl of mush.
At first glance, Grassroots doesn't seem like much of an idea for a movie. Nor at second, third or fourth glance. Your fifth glance will be at your watch, and at sixth glance your eyelids will be getting very, very heavy.
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Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
It isn't entirely clear what Stephen Gyllenhaal sees in the material apart from some lukewarm raging against the machine.