Hippies for 21st century

Woody Harrelson and company go on an organic-living lecture tour.
By LIAM LACEY
TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL
Old hippies never die, they just get recycled as environmental activists.
That's the spirit of Ron Mann's new documentary, "Go Further," which follows actor Woody Harrelson and an entourage -- a yoga teacher, an activist, a vegetarian cook and a junk-food addict -- as they travel down from Oregon through California on their "Simple Organic Living" lecture tour.
As they bicycle or ride in their hemp-fueled bus, they meet various organic entrepreneurs, witness clear-cut logging and crop-dusting and push their light-footprint message to cheering crowds of college kids.
The film takes its name from the bus that carried author Ken Kesey ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") and the Merry Pranksters across America 40 years ago, a journey chronicled in Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test." Kesey died shortly after appearing in a scene here, where he shows Harrelson the original dilapidated bus.
Mann's previous documentaries have covered such subjects as comic books, jazz, spoken-word poetry, the Twist and marijuana.
Following the tour
By comparison, "Go Further" is documentary-lite, as Mann contents himself with following the tour, occasionally staging scenes and riffing off whatever quirky moments arise. Though the film pays homage to the '60s counterculture, the inspiration could as easily be late-night infomercials, with their combination of feel-good messages and celebrity pitches.
Technically, Mann's film reflects his typical polished editing, seamlessly blending road anecdotes with environmentally friendly messages, bits of animation and musical performances (Natalie Merchant, Dave Matthews, Bob Weir).
Most of the characters we meet on the journey are cheerful solution-providers: a woman who runs a paper company that doesn't hurt trees, an organic farmer, a man who sells natural fertilizer and eco-warriors who rehearse techniques for demonstrations.
Though the mood is celebratory, the film doesn't disguise the zeal, and sometimes preciousness, of the characters. Harrelson, in contrast to his goofball sitcom persona, displays a priestly self-importance: "If we can just change one person's mind ..." And you don't have to be a Scotch-and-steak sort to wince when the entourage's raw-foods chef suggests they eat dinner outside because it's more "joyful."
Comic relief is provided by Steve Clarke, a production assistant from the television comedy "Will & amp; Grace" and a confessed junk-food addict, who learns to give up cigarettes, milk and chocolate. A subplot follows Steve as he picks up a college student and convinces her to join the tour. Soon Harrelson is telling her she can clear up her pimples if she stops drinking milk.
If the tour was about winning one mind at a time, the girl's boyfriend (seen watching miserably while she packs) can probably be counted as a failure.