Deer Hunting With Jesus (2007)

Joe Bageant, a liberal blogger and self-described ''native son of a working America gone downhill,'' returned to his native Winchester, Va., in 1999 to see just how far down that hill things had slid. He finds a blue-stater's vision of hell: a permanent underclass held down by corporate greed, bamboozled by right-wing propaganda, and anesthetized by ''alcohol, Jesus, and overeating.'' Mixing folksy populism with the lacerating fury of Hunter S. Thompson, Bageant's bitingly funny Deer Hunting With Jesus can at times make Michael Moore seem tame. While Hunting may leave you heartsick, it's hard to turn away. B+