By It’s been a few years since Michael Moore’s previous film, Capitalism: A Love Story. He’s back with a new documentary called Where to Invade Next, which may be a comeback movie for the filmmaker.
Where to Invade Next has yet to secure distribution or set a release date, though it’s a hot commodity, possibly thanks to the upcoming election year. Variety reported that Netflix, major studios, and a number of other companies are actively pursuing the film following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last week.
A trailer for Where to Invade Next was released recently, which you can check out below.
Reviews for Where to Invade Next have been general positive out of TIFF, with some critics saying it’s Moore’s feel good movie. The documentary follows Moore abroad as he explores some of the systems that other countries have in place with regard to education, healthcare, and work laws. One assumes that these outside ideas might be what’s needed to improve current systems within the United States and to make American great again. (I can’t believe I just quoted Donald Trump’s stupid fucking baseball cap.)
For the last few years, my feelings toward Michael Moore have soured. I’m a hardcore liberal and love documentaries, but I think Moore’s best work is in the late 80s through the 90s (i.e., Roger & Me, TV Nation, The Awful Truth). While I enjoyed Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 when they were initially released, today they come across as sloppily made documentaries that make similarly sloppy or just outright disingenuous arguments for things that I as a good progressive believe in. Those movies are relics of the red/blue divide when I was becoming a politically conscious adult during undergrad and just after college. Back then I would watch Countdown with Keith Olbermann every night for his Murrow-esque indignation, naively hoping he would win the ratings war against Bill O’Reilly. (I also used to listen to Air America Radio during my commute. Perhaps I’m a sucker for well-intentioned lost causes.) While Moore was a trailblazer, he seems to have remained in that turn-of-the-century mold of political discourse and documentary film while both of these have since evolved.
We’ll be seeing Where to Invade Next at this year’s New York Film Festival, and I’ll have more thoughts about Moore then. Check back for our review in a few weeks.
What do you think of Michael Moore? Share your thoughts (and possibly vitriol) in the comments.
[via Variety, ScreenCrush]