There have been so many political documentaries coming out lately it’s hard to keep track of them all. While I’ve caught a few of them either on DVD or in theaters (“Fahrenheit 911″, “Super Size Me”, & “Outfoxed”), there are still quite a few that I hope to catch before they disappear (“The Corporation”, “The Hunting of the President”, & “The Control Room”). Among this crowd, one little documentary has been lost in the shuffle. In fact, if I hadn’t been sent a review copy (for which I am very grateful**), I wouldn’t have even known “Bush’s Brain” existed.

For those unfamiliar with the book it’s based on, “Bush’s Brain” is about the career of Karl Rove, Bush’s chief advisor and the brains behind a slew of successful campaigns. Like the book, the movie is told through the accounts of reporters, campaign workers, and former rivals who have been following his career for more than 20 years. As an indictment of Rove, the film is a pretty sloppy polemic (although most of this is by necessity), but I would still heartily recommend the film to everyone on the left as a warning sign about the dirty tricks we can expect in the weeks leading up to the November election.

The film’s biggest flaw is that it can’t conclusively pin anything on Rove. While the flood of circumstantial evidence is as overwhelming as it is damning, the justifiably angry tone of many of the film’s participants would make it very difficult to refute charges that this film is little more than a collection of political “sour grapes”. In fact, some of the most powerful arguments in the film come from Rove himself in the form of excerpts from a letter that he sent to the authors of the book. In these scenes, Rove argues against what he sees as the book’s distortions and hyperbole.

Let’s face it, Karl Rove is a political genius. He wouldn’t have gotten as far as he has if he was sloppy enough to get caught. So while the film builds a persuasive case (at least to those of us who go into the film ready to accept its conclusions), there’s nothing in this film that couldn’t be refuted by a competent spin doctor. So if the film is primarily an attack on Karl Rove, it’s a failure.

The more important story told in the film is the list of dirty tricks that seem to follow every campaign that Rove is associated with. From his early days in which he “allegedly” planted a bug in his own office a few days before the election in order to make the Democrats look like crooks, to the 2000 election in which rumors that John McCain’s adopted daughter from Bangladesh was the result of an affair he’d had with a black prostitute, clearly Rove campaigns have a dark side that follows them. Even if Rove isn’t personally responsible for attacks like these, the fact that his campaigns are an environment in which dirty tricks are deemed acceptable is enough the convict the man for me.

So with an election as important as this one coming up, I strongly recommend checking out “Bush’s Brain“. While it may not make as strong a case as “Fahrenheit 911″ (all the fat jokes in the world aren’t enough to discredit the movie), the film is a powerful reminder about just how low people will sink to win elections.

** Seriously, getting a free DVD in the mail totally kicks ass. Just because I don’t have ads on my site doesn’t mean I won’t sell out. If you want your book or movie to get a spotty review on a moderately successful blog, email me.