Michael Moore’s latest full length documentary film is called Where To Invade Next. The title like the film is no reflection of what you expect it to be. It seemed like a good idea to begin with. However, like modern day Western coalition foreign policy once the invasion is finished just move onto the next place leaving, in this case, the inhabitants of the “invaded” countries and viewers bemused with no answers and little reasoning.
I thought I knew what the film was about – Michael Moore doing what he does pointing at all America’s flaws and showing critical thought. Here he leads the “invasion” to “steal” the best ideas from other European countries and take them back to the US: Italy’s 8 weeks of holiday, the French school dinners, Norway allowing prisoners the right to live openly within confines, Finnish no school holidays and Iceland showing women do it better. All that is great until he raises the point that all of these were originally American ideas. What then is the point of these “invasions”? He doesn’t quite know where he’s taking us. The images of American prison brutality and the disproportionate amount of black men locked up are sobering and thought provoking and could be the subject of its own film. There are a litany of good thoughts and ideas sprinkled liberally throughout this documentary film but no real thread if you discount Michael Moore.
At the end, it was apparent he “invaded” too many countries with no plan of what to do next. Sometimes it was with comical results but mostly it just felt like many an international assault of late in the Middle East – invade and follow up later. It therefore didn’t really achieve what he set out to do. Which is what I do not know. It is enjoyable and I laughed in parts but when it was apparent that no critical thought or conclusion would be forthcoming my attention waned.
It is thought provoking and raises questions it is just that Michael Moore doesn’t answer any of them. Go to the cinema to watch this if you are a big fan of Michael Moore’s films otherwise wait for the DVD.
Where To Invade Next is released in cinemas across the UK on Friday 10 June.
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