Anthem

Gabel and Hahn, whose thoughtful and frequently amusing commentary carries us through thousands of miles of interstate and more motels than Frank Zappa ever imagined, are guided by John Steinbeck's wisdom that you don't take a trip, but the trip takes you

This is a documentary that could easily have been overly self-indulgent or fashionably irreverent but instead appeals to one's intelligence and provides glimpses of a dynamic country cruising peacefully toward the millennium.

It's enjoyable precisely because Hahn and Gabel give us both sides of the experience: the interviewer and interviewee. Though there's an undercurrent of melancholy, Anthem is a bright ride, a welcome shot of 60's optimism in a gray post-modern age.

While Anthem may not offer any genuine insight into the future of America, Gabel and Hahn at least prove that the can-do spirit has not been completely lost to cynicism and the cult of celebrity.