It is a shame many people shy away from documentaries simply because they expect some boring talking heads movie, which will elicit every emotion except humor.

These notions are a shame because Michael Moore's new film Roger and Me is more Late Night with David Letterman than anything else.

Moore is the film, serving as writer, director and producer of the project. The Flint, Mich. native had good reason to be such an integral part of the piece -- it centers on the effects the General Motors plant closings have on his small hometown.

This film, however, is not supposed to be a bitch session. It is designed to show how people are affected by unemployment everyday and how ridiculous some solutions to complex problems can be.

Moore's goal is to bring GM Chairman Roger Smith to Flint to experience first hand the devastation of the plant closings. Needless to say, Smith never makes it.

Some of funniest moments in the picture come during Moore's many treks to GM headquarters, stockholders' meetings or high-class clubs. Moore is always rebuked by dimwitted public relations people or brainless rent-a-cops and thus must return to Flint sans Smith.

The real humor in the film is the people who think Flint can revitalize itself after such a disaster. Various townspeople babble slogans aimed at maintaining hope and build new attractions to bring in tourists. They even burn Money magazine to protest its naming Flint the second worst place to live in the country. All this occurs while the crime rate soars and some townspeople resort to selling plasma as their only means of income.

There is the rabbit seller, whose sign boasts: "Rabbits for sale as pets or food;" the local sheriff's deputy who evicts people with a somber and uncaring manner; the moronic plasma donor who must think about the center's hours and then says, "They're not open every day, only Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but not Saturday or Sunday," and there is the GM lobbyist, whose devotion to capitalism runs so deep that he sees the plant closings purely as a wise business decision.

Moore's film is not all amusing, however. It can be genuinely despairing. Moore meticulously discloses the condition of Flint and paints a dingy picture. A good slogan might be, "It is horrid to visit, and I would not want to live there either."

Moore scathingly investigates the differences between the class structures in Flint. The rich all go about their business -- playing golf, dining at the yacht club and celebrating the opening of the new prison by spending the night incarcerated -- while laid-off citizens eke out a meager existence. More brings these contradictions to light with biting satire, usually using montage to increase the viewer's tension.

It is hoped the word "documentary" will not deter people from seeing Roger and Me because the comic film is one of the year's most worthwhile.