Deadline: Michael Moore is back with Where To Invade Next, his new doc that’s been storming the festival circuit this year. Framed as a wry travelogue, the film satirizes U.S. foreign policy with visits to several countries, including France, Finland, and Italy, examining how they deal with economic and social ills experienced Stateside. In other words, instead of waging wars over resources like oil, why not wage them over decent health care and so on. Where To Invade Next was rated R by the MPAA despite Moore’s protests. The new trailer has been released and you can see it here now.
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Given the subject matter director Michael Moore’s previous documentaries (Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11) and the title of his latest film, you could be forgiven for expecting a scabrous attack on the U.S. military – indeed, he can’t resist a swipe in that direction in the opening prologue, pointing out that America haven’t been the victors in a military conflict since 1945.
EW: Despite its militaristic title, Michael Moore’s latest blast of cinematic agitprop isn’t about war-happy American foreign policy. It’s far stealthier than that. In his first documentary since 2009’s Capitalism: A Love Story, Michigan’s muckraking merry prankster takes a look at America and wonders aloud how we’ve lost our way.
Maybe Michael Moore should actually try running for office. Making a documentary about something truly does not facilitate big changes most of the time. God knows he's been trying for years.
AVClub: When Michael Moore’s latest documentary was announced as part of the Toronto International Film Festival lineup a few months ago, only its title, Where To Invade Next, was provided—no synopsis or log line. Many people reflexively cringed, imagining some sort of bellicose rant about American foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East. As it turns out, however, Moore is in an unusually playful mood this time around, and his hypothetical invasions are cultural rather than military. Pretending that the Joint Chiefs Of Staff have sent him on a mission, he travels to various European countries with the intention of “annexing” their good ideas, or at least claiming said ideas for the good ol’ U.S. of A. After several films in a row that leaned too hard on manipulative emotional appeals (Fahrenheit 9/11 was especially galling in that regard), Moore here makes his strongest bona fide argument in ages, albeit one that still gleefully stacks the deck and avoids examining possible downsides too carefully. He even comes across as genuinely patriotic, in his own way.
