SHORT TAKES : ‘Roger & Me’ Debuts in Detroit

“Roger & Me,” the controversial film about how layoffs by General Motors Corp. decimated Flint, Mich., made its Detroit premiere before a capacity crowd Thursday night in the shadow of GM’s world headquarters.

Michael Moore, the 35-year-old former editor of Mother Jones magazine who wrote, directed and starred in the film, said the movie “will be GM’s worst nightmare come true” if it succeeds at the box office.

Shown to a sold-out audience of 1,150 at the Detroit Institute of Arts, “Roger & Me” is a dark comedy that loosely chronicles how the city of Flint tried to cope with its economic woes after a series of massive layoffs at GM plants.

The “Roger” of the title is GM Chairman Roger B. Smith, who in one scene is shown quoting Charles Dickens at a GM Christmas party juxtaposed with gut-wrenching scenes of a Flint family being evicted on Christmas Eve.

Moore, also former editor of the Flint Voice alternative newspaper, is seen dogging Smith in a tongue-in-cheek effort to ask the GM chief to tour Flint and view the devastation caused by the layoffs of 32,000 workers during the last 11 years.

Both GM and Smith have refrained from making public comment about the movie, although they have privately called Moore “a social radical.”

About 40% of the profits from the film will be put toward a nonprofit company to encourage other novice filmmakers with relevant stories to tell.