All Michael Moore Wanna Do Is Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom

Michael Moore, that great American gadfly, is getting ready to make the country even angrier than it is already. He released the trailer to his new movie today, and it already shows the usual Moore tics: surprise ambushes of the rich and powerful, honest interviews with unexpected sources, and a mockery of the eminently mockable President Bush. This time Moore is skewering the bank bailouts of 2008. The M.I.A.-soundtracked trailer for Capitalism: A Love Story is embedded below:

This movie—or at least the two minutes of it I've seen—is a normal Moore film being released in an abnormally angry time. Moore has always been at his best when he channels society's latent anger. Gun control, the war in Iraq, the health care crisis—Moore's shtick works when he serves as the catalyst for a larger conversation, not when he tries to crystallize the angry debate that has already taken place.

Which is why this film comes through at such an odd moment. The vitriol against the bank bailout happened last fall. The unreasonable populist backlash hit last winter. The town hall screams this summer are actually about government intervention, a legacy of the bailouts. The nation hasn't stopped screaming, moaning, and kvetching all year. By the time Moore's movie debuts in October, the nation's vocal chords will be hoarse.

Moore's anger appears to be directed at a different president than the country's. George Bush is Michael Moore's favorite straw man, and Moore's subject—the bank bailouts—are the legacy of a Bush administration. But these days the country is far more pissed at Obama, even if it's partly because of Bush policies. (The deficit, after all, didn't get to be $1.58 trillion on its own.) Bank bailouts may not be a thing of the past, but Bush is.

Most interesting, then, is what will happen if Moore does manage to rile people who see the movie. After all, we already know that people are capable of getting angry at Wall Street. But if Moore stokes anger among the populace, at whom will they direct it? An out-of-office president who isn't really accountable any more? Or a sitting president whose own term has been shaped by the events of his predecessor's? If Obama gets the brunt of it, it won't be the first time misdirected anger comes his way. Just ask the town hall protesters.