Choose or Lose Presents: The Best Place to Start

Drew Barrymore has written, filmed and stars in this documentary "CHOOSE OR LOSE: The Best Place to Start," for MTV. In it, she explores voting and why the young people of America seem so disinterested in doing it. I highly suggest watching it. Drew interviews people such as Wes Clark, Hillary Clinton, James Carville, RNC and DNC officials as well as pop culture figures such as Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Seth McFarlane (The creator of Family Guy) and Michael Moore. Very interesting. It doesn't chose sides or tell young people who they should vote for, it simply inquires why they don't vote when they have the right to do so. Once again, watch this if you get a chance, especially if you're young.

This documentary was average. Don't get me wrong,I am a huge Drew Barrymore fan, and I personally loved it, but in the view of others, I think it was average. I say this because I feel she asked all the necessary questions about the non existence of the youth vote, but provided no answers. There was really no solution to the problem at the end of the documentary. Sure, it was enlightening, but hey, I could've done the exact same thing. Go to DC, meet a few politicians, ask a question, and get no determinable response. Fun. Great, we all know its a cycle....anything else? Nope? Okay. I can't really criticize, because I've written quite a few reports like this film...they just kind of float around on the topic without giving a conclusion. If you're a hard core Drew fan, I recommend this movie....if not, I wouldn't be so sure.

I love Drew Barrymore, but this documentary repeatedly misses the opportunity to do exactly what it sets out to accomplish: to help young people understand why it's important to vote.

The film effectively uses Drew as the starting point of its exploration. She's "typical" of her generation in that she doesn't know much about the political process, feels inadequate to participate in it, and although she senses that it's important to vote she's struggling to understand why that's true. However, the film fails to evolve beyond that point. It misses the opportunity to educate people about the political process even as she works to educate *herself* about it.

For example, Drew captured some terrific footage from politicians either blowing off young voters or angst-ing over the "chicken/egg" dynamic of getting young people to vote. But it misses the opportunity to educate them about *how* young people got the vote to begin with. The voting age was 21 until the 26th amendment was enacted in 1971 *directly in response to student activism against the Vietnam War.* They felt that if they were old enough to die for their country, then they ought to have a say in its political policies.

That fact alone could have provided the centerpiece for exploring the experience of young voters today. Why have young people evolved from being a force of radical change to being the picture of political apathy?

Likewise, this documentary takes you to the New Hampshire primary, but never explains what a primary is or why it's important to the election process. It talks about the importance of voter registration, but it doesn't tell people how to actually *get* registered. It fails to identify relevant "youth issues" and areas of frustration that young people might be able to remedy using the power of their votes.

In other words, it asks some good questions, but fails to provide grounded, useful, real-world answers, nor does it provide a pithy education about the political process and how a young person might fit into it and use it to their advantage.

That said, it's interesting in its own way. It just suffers from a too-close perspective and fails to deliver the bigger picture, which would have been more enlightening and thought-provoking. It would actually be interesting to see Drew produce a second film on this topic from her current vantage point: a bit older and now better-informed. She could bring a unique and interesting perspective to a follow-up production, and probably help get a new generation fired up about political participation.

Here's hoping!