Hold on!....a bulletin that just went up on Movie City News (2:05 pm Friday PST) says FAHRENHEIT 9/11 is "on fire" in theaters... "early numbers on Friday projecting to a $10 million to $12 million day... sell-outs in most major markets... could be a $30 million weekend."

I wasn't really aware of this FAHRENHEIT rumble until earlier this week. I thought it was going to do decent to fairly strong business before; now I don't know. But I know something extra is going on with this film. All these people I know who rarely go out to the movies -- my father, my sister, my next-door neighbor -- are telling me they're going this weekend.

I saw it again last Tuesday night at an L.A. Film Festival showing at the DGA building. I took my two sons -- Jett, 16, and Dylan, 14 -- and was amazed when they said after the show that it was a "terrific film" and "really great." Jett said,"I didn't get it before, but I get it now." These guys have never been this thumbs-up about a doc before.

What appears to be ready to happen this weekend is not just about a popular film selling tickets. It's starting to feel like a cultural happening...a kind of mass revival meeting, although it's not about being saved. (Spared, possibly.) Paying to see it this weekend is being touted as almost the same thing as voting...only more fun.

And it is that. Read the negative essays and reviews by the big-time Moore dissers out there (Christopher Hitchens, Armond White, Lou Lumenick, David Poland) and you'll come away convinced that FAHRENHEIT 9/11 is the kind of film that sends a thousand bees into your head and drives you crazy from all the half-lies and distortions, or from sheer exposure to all the rank dishonesty supposedly festering in Moore's personality.

What a lot of mean-spirited shit these pissy badgering toe-suckers are pushing. I saw FAHRENHEIT 9/11 again last Tuesday night, and it's funny, and a lot of fun, and still touching and teary towards the end. It's absolutely nothing to get your knickers in a twist over. I mean, unless you're a cranky nitpicking rightist fuckhead.

Okay, there's one thing: Moore makes no mention of what an unconscionably evil prick Saddam Hussein was when he was running Iraq, and that his removal from office was at least partly a good thing despite all the lies that went into the selling of the Iraqi War. Any fair look at the situation requires an acknowledgement of this.

On the other hand, anyone who says a documentary has to bend over backwards to see all sides and weigh all views is living in a vacuum. British documentarian Adam Curtis (THE CENTURY OF THE SELF) told me essentially the same thing last year.

"Those days of journalism are over," he said. "[A good documentarian's job] is to tell an actual story, but what comes from this approach is not a polemic -- it's a particular story told from a particular viewpoint."

"The idea that documentaries are some kind of balanced, neutral report is a recent manifestation ... and has more to do with TV journalism," said Michael Renov, associate dean at USC School of Cinema and Television, in a Reuters piece that ran yesterday.

And yet FAHRENHEIT 9/11 is obviously more than a "particular viewpoint" piece.

Moore lays out his Dubya-must-go case as he chooses, obviously deploying a selective use of facts (have you ever heard of a great novelist, dramatist or joke-teller who didn't shape and edit his stories for effect?) along with some dryly sarcastic narration, clever sound cues, shrewd editing and so on.

And it's all pretty damned accurate as far as I could discern. Somewhere between 98% and 99%, I'd say. There's a ton of material in it, and it's amazing how deftly and with great economy Moore plays card after card, and them slips them back in the deck.

Let's be frank. Let's cut the shit. The people who are trying to nail Moore for shoddy journalism or a lack of fairness (the ones who are really harping on it, I mean) are mostly those who disagree with what he's saying in this film.

These things are in the film and true: (a) George W. Bush has a good-looking golf swing; (b) his brother Jeb Bush essentially rigged the 2000 election in W.'s favor by arranging for the purging of thousands of black Floridian voters from the rolls; (c) Dubya sat at the front of that elementary-school class on 9.11.01 and slowly thought things over after he was told about the second jet hitting the south tower; (d) waging the war in Iraq was far from crucial for U.S. interests and was sold to the U.S. public with a lie; (e) the deaths of Americans in post-Saddam Iraq have probably been for naught; and (f) Dubya and Co. need to be punished for their transgressions by being sent back to the private sector.

And there's definitely no getting around Lila Lipscomb, the conservative Democrat mom from Flint who lost her son in a crash of a Blackhawk chopper in Iraq last year. Watching this hard-working middle-class woman break down and lose it over her son (who wrote her just before his death to say we're in Iraq "for nothing") is impossible to shake off.

Those saying this film shows that Moore hates America are being just plain asinine. I realize he can be a bit of showboater, but Moore isn't flim-flamming when he talks about the grunts.

He says that the people who live in the lousiest neighborhoods and go to the crummiest schools in the U.S. are always the ones who go to war when the time comes, "so we don't have to." And all they ever ask is that they not be asked to put their lives on the line unless it's absolutely necessary.

One of my favorite moments comes when Bush addresses a banquet filled with blue-chip supporters. "This is an impressive crowd," he says with a smirk. "The have...and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite -- I call you my base." The sense of ease and self-amused confidence in W.'s delivery is priceless. As most of us know, it's almost always the obiter dicta -- the words in passing -- that give the game away.

I love what Desson Thomson wrote about FAHRENHEIT 9/11 from Cannes: "What's remarkable here isn't Moore's political animosity or ticklish wit. It's the well-argued, heartfelt power of his persuasion. Even though there are many things here that we have already learned, Moore puts it all together. It's a look back that feels like a new gaze forward."

See it this weekend, drag your friends, wait in the longest movie lines of your life, and help make the FAHRENHEIT tallies as big as possible. Or don't and stay home.

Lost Boys

What the hell has happened to Larry and Andy Wachowski, the creators of the MATRIX trilogy?

What do you do for an encore when you've delivered two of the biggest disappointments in the history of visionary big-budget movies (i.e., last year's THE MATRIX RELOADED and THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS), shattered the faith of millions of once-loyal fans, and tarnished your reputations as filmmakers of major consequence?

If I were Andy I would probably go into a huge depression and leave town and rent a big home in the Sierras and take a lot of walks and drink a lot of beer and order take-out. If I were Larry and I was just getting used to being a woman, I'd probably move to San Francisco and try and settle in and enjoy lots of hot, lathery sex.

But after a few months of hiding away and licking my wounds I'd want to come out of the cave and start working on the next thing. I'd want people to know I'm not defeated, my gloves are back on and I'm ready for the next round.

These are the guys who wrote and directed the original THE MATRIX, remember....one of the most imaginative and far-reaching films of the '90s. And let's not forget BOUND, either. They're good hombres at heart and extremely bright guys. They just let themselves get led astray by Joel Silver and the prospect of making all that filthy lucre.

Last week I mentioned to a producer friend that the Wachowski's hadn't attended the memorial services for former Silver Pictures vp Dan Cracchiolo, who was one of their staunchest supporters on the Warner Bros. lot back when they really needed staunch supporters. I said to him, "I guess they're too important to show up for the funeral of a former friend."

The producer answered, "Are they important? I don't know a single film that they're working on. I don't know a single studio that's saying, 'What about them?' I have some big films coming together and no one has them on any kind of list."

In a Wachowski brothers profile for EMPIRE magazine that ran about 14 months ago, I asked what their lives will be like after the MATRIX sequels are done and out there and consigned to history.

"However [the sequels] turn out, the trilogy as a whole has been a massive undertaking that will have occupied, writing included, nearly a fifth of their lives. Expectations can be a heavy burden. But the Wachowski's already have some fresh irons in the fire.

"We had a (Mike) Ditka quote on the wall of our office when we were doing BOUND," Larry told Gary Dretzka in '99. "It said, 'The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare.'"

I mentioned a report about Wachowski's supposedly signing on to write and/or produce (or both) a new CONAN THE BARBARIAN movie, but I haven't hear anything about this since. Cracchiolo told me last year there's a book they've always loved called "Freak Circus" that they own and may develop into a film.

There's also a comic-book property called V FOR VENDETTA that's been sitting around Silver Pictures for years that the Wachowski's "wrote a brilliant draft of," Cracchiolo told me. "It's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA meets THE CROW meets Terry Gilliam."

Last July I read on a fansite that the Wachowski's were "secretly" cutting a deal with another writer to put another MATRIX-like multi-media thing together (which could possibly include a movie) called DREAMSCAPEAXIS.

The informer, a guy who said he read the notes about the project while interning at William Morris, says that the key descriptive words were "second Messiah," "DIA," "supernatural" and that "strewn all over the treatment is the word 'Axis.'"

Bullshit. Bad idea. The Wachowski's have to say far, far away from anything vaguely MATRIX-y for a long, long while. They need to do something hot, fast and hand made. That means no fucking CGI. A good crime movie of some kind, say...another BOUND.

What I'm sensing, however, is that they 're doing the same kind of hideaway thing Jim Cameron did for six or seven years in the wake of TITANIC.

If anyone knows anything, please inform.

I know this for sure: when you call their production house in Venice, Eon Productions, you get a message saying the number "is no longer in service."

Remembrance

I ran this a couple of years ago, and now it has added resonance. Regular readers will figure it out in a flash, but I found it amusing to read again.

A powerful politician is arguing with his wife over his supposed lack of devotion to her. They're discussing a friend of his, who she feels is largely to blame for her husband's lack of attentions.

Wife: Your friend? You mean you went to the whorehouses together? It was he who lured you away from the duties you owe to me.

Politician: Madame, in matters of debauchery it was I who lured him. And I didn't need anyone to lure me away from the duties I owe you. I made you four children very conscientiously. Thank the Lord my duty is done!

Wife: I pray heaven he stays away from you. You may appreciate the joys of family life again.

The sounds of their children playing raucously nearby can be heard. The wife is weaving a large tapestry.

Politician: The joys of family life are limited, Madame. To be perfectly frank, you bore me! You and you everlasting backbiting! And for God's sake how long does it take to weave a tapestry? It's mediocre beyond belief.

Wife: One performs according to one's gifts!

Lang and Osama

"With all your talk of Michael Moore and THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, I thought I'd call your attention to a 70-year old film that seems politically relevant today.

I just got a copy of the restored DVD of Fritz Lang's 1933 flick THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE. It's about a mad super criminal who controls a gang of terrorists from his asylum cell, and is bent on terrorizing the populace into utter anarchy and then establishing 'the empire of crime" (God, I love that phrase!).

"Lang once acknowledged that he made the film with Hitler and the Nazis in mind, but I was getting eerie Al Qaeda vibes. Whatever. The restoration is amazing. It looks like it was shot yesterday, and the subtext of the film seems timeless. It's worth a look." -- Lewis Beale

Back and Forth

"The anti-Bush content of your column has gotten out of control, and your political views are affecting your journalistic integrity. The final line in Wednesday's column suggests you're either a liar or badly misinformed.

"Here's what you wrote: 'I've never read anything to indicate there's anything slippery or half-factual about W.'s cocaine problem in the '70s. Throwing the Clapton song 'Cocaine'[into FAHRENHEIT 9/11] is perfectly legitimate, in my view....as well as funny.'

"Can it possibly be true that you have never read anything to suggest that allegations that Bush used cocaine are slippery or half-factual? Have you ever read anything saying that the allegations are true? " -- Jeff Brooks

Wells to Brooks: Bush once said in an allusion to this episode in his life, "I've made mistakes, 20 or 30 years ago. But I've learned from my mistakes."

The meaning of this statement is fairly obvious to me. George is saying he did all kinds of shit when he was younger, and now he's sorry.

And good for him. I respect anyone who turns a corner on booze or coke or whatever. I don't believe in making a huge deal about this, but I certainly think it's okay for Moore to take 1 and 1/2 seconds in the film to allude to Bush's reckless period in the early '70s.

I also think it's fairly chickenshit for righties...guys who were on Cloud Nine for years when they were kicking Clinton around for Paula Jones and Monica Lewsinky....it's chickenshit for these guys to go, "Not fair to talk about Bush's alleged cocaine use! It hasn't been proved!"

If you dish it out, have the character to stand up and be a man when it gets dished back at you, and stop whining.

Brooks back to Wells: Bush's statement is ambiguous, yes. He didn't deny that he used drugs, but he also didn't admit it. Thus, it is not a fact that he used cocaine.

Wells back to Brooks: Bush was trying to hold onto his dignity when he said this, just like Clinton was trying to hold onto his when he said on "60 Minutes" that he and his wife Hilary "have had some problems in our marriage." We all know what this means. No, we don't know for a fact that Bush snorted cocaine, and I don't really care if he did. I've made mistakes in my life too. Have you? I'm only saying it's permissible in a satiric context for Moore to have a brief bit of fun with this allegation.

Austin Speaks!

"I read your free ad posing as a column today for FARENHEIT 9/11. I thought you might be interested to know that among at least one clique of left wing People's Republic of Austin residents (basically all bio-chemistry, bio-statistics and ecology PhD students and post docs), there is very little interest in seeing Moore's latest film.

"Some comments from the clique, culled from a BBQ two nights ago where a proposal for a mass viewing of the movie had a very flat response:

Allen, age 32, husband of PhD Student and aide to Austin city mayor: "There are many principled reasonable critics of the administration, but Moore isn't one." (Note -- he's probably a Nader voter)

Carline, age 29, PhD Student: "It just seems like a propaganda piece that probably distorts stuff. I don't need a movie to convince me to vote against Bush."

Margaret, age 31, PhD student: "I stopped seeing movies when they hit six bucks for admission and I'm not making an exception for this one. I'm sure I would agree and everything, but what's the point?"

"Jay, age 29, husband of PhD student and City of Austin Water Dept. Employee: "My problems with Bush have very little to do with Iraq or Afghanistan. Moore is a fool and this movie is going to damage Kerry if the right can connect it to him somehow." (Addendum: Jay is a fanatical Democrat who is voting for Kerry in Nov. because he thinks Kerry will do a better job at prosecuting the war on terror and in Iraq and will be more fiscally responsible. He disagrees with Bush but Moore would probably disagree with Jay.)

"I think this movie will do well considering the small amount of screens it's on, but I don't think it's going to be some big cultural phenomenon like THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST or BLAIR WITCH or whatever. It's basically red meat for the left, and the right wing won't see it. It seems like it will be the darling of the west and east coasts but I don't think the moderates and even the 'liberals' in the red states are going to go for it.

"I'm not sure the undecideds, who are kind of contrary and mistrustful of everything as a rule, are really going to take the movie all that seriously, given that Moore is basically an entertainer and a lot of the criticism of the movie, despite what you say, is pretty lucid and accurate.

"Some will see it, but I don't think anyone is rushing out to see it this weekend. I'm no fan of Moore but will probably see it on DVD when it's out like I did BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE." -- Jes Askin, Austin, Texas.