I’ll be surprised if it’s better than Why We Fight or The Fog of War, but it could be fun to see him skewer Obama.
Alessan
September 11, 2015, 8:19am
42
According to the Hollywood Reporter , this entire thread has absolutely nothing to do with the actual movie in question:
Six years after Capitalism: A Love Story called for audiences to revolt against the evils of free enterprise, filmmaker Michael Moore returns to the screen in a far mellower mood with Where To Invade Next. Fans accustomed to his harsh critiques of health care, the educational system and gun controlin the U.S. may be a little surprised, but not disappointed, at this almost happy film full of lol moments. Instead of ranting over the conspicuous social failings he sees in the U.S.A., he humorously finds solutions to his its ills by “invading” various countries and bringing back the victor’s spoils, which are simply other people’s good ideas. Funny and always on-topic without going overboard, it’s an engaging film that could broaden Moore’s fan base. Its premiere in Toronto was greeted with eager laughter and frequent applause.
[Nelson Muntz]
Ha-ha!
[/Nelson Muntz]
Knowing Moore’s record of mendacity and lying, i am sure that it will be standard Moore:
From somebody who has seen the film:
In the film Moore travels through a string of (mostly) European countries and “invades” them by taking back their best progressive ideals and “stealing” them for the U.S. As he put it in a Q&A after the film, Moore didn’t shoot any of the film in the U.S; rather, he felt he could scrutinize “who we are in a more hopefully profound and devastating way by going elsewhere, so we could maybe examine what happened to our American Soul.”
In Italy, Moore revels in the notion of 8 weeks of paid vacation, and 5-month paid maternity leaves. In France, he is astounded at the healthy and delicious lunches served in even the poorest schools (not to mention the selection of 80 cheeses the school chef prepares for dessert). He examines the humane Norweigan prison system, Portugal’s successful decriminalization of drugs, Slovenia’s free higher education system, and Finland’s eradication of standardized tests. He uses Germany as a case study in how to treat your workers — and how come to terms with a painful national past. And he focuses extensively on the idea that women are the most powerful force for social change, from the many female bankers, politicians and CEOs who have helped remake Iceland to the Tunisian activists who fought successfully for a women’s rights amendment to their constitution.
<snip>
In a post-screening Q&A, Moore acknowledged that many will criticize the film’s positive slant on countries where many egregious social issues still exist (“Italy? Italy is a fucking mess! Greece? He didn’t go to Greece, did he!”), he said his goal here was to “pick the flowers and not the weeds” — and to show Americans that the world outside fortress U.S.A. isn’t just a socialist hellscape, because the mainstream media does plenty of that.
“We don’t need to watch another documentary saying how fucked up this thing is or fucked up that thing is,” Moore said. “We need to get off our asses and get inspired by what we can do.”
Indeed, what be most surprising about the film is how optimistic it is. In the Q&A, Moore explained that his crew lovingly dubbed the film “Mike’s happy movie,” and his “no problems, all solutions movie.” Certainly, it feels like a very personal project for him; Moore appeared to almost tear up onstage as he thanked everyone for “the love that exists in the world and in my life,” citing recent personal events, including his father’s death and recently turning 60, that prompted him to start “living differently.”
It doesn’t matter what he does, what he says, or what he films.
He isn’t credible.
I think sometimes he makes good advocacy movies, and then undercuts them with his attempts to be funny. But *Sicko *was really eye-opening, and this sounds like it has a lot of the same kind of thing: going to other countries and showing what they do better than the United States of America.
Gyrate:
I’m not a Michael Moore fan. If he put in the work he could do the job he thinks he’s actually doing, but instead he takes shortcuts, fudges the facts, takes cheap shots and generally sacrifices honesty and credibility in order to be able to act all smug and superior.
I’m sure his new film will contain many valid and thought-provoking points - and I’m likewise sure he’ll take a big steaming dump all over them as per usual.
Yeah, he picks worthy targets and there’s always enough material in them to obtain an indictment and conviction, but then he always goes too far by throwing in things that are legitimately ambiguous, or complete misrepresentations, and should have been left out. It severely damages the final product for anybody knowledgeable, which, I admit, is generally going to be a small number.
It lets people correctly call his stuff propaganda instead of documentary.
Isamu
September 13, 2015, 1:31pm
48
DonLogan:
Yeah, he picks worthy targets and there’s always enough material in them to obtain an indictment and conviction, but then he always goes too far by throwing in things that are legitimately ambiguous, or complete misrepresentations, and should have been left out. It severely damages the final product for anybody knowledgeable, which, I admit, is generally going to be a small number.
It lets people correctly call his stuff propaganda instead of documentary.
Many people express this kind of sentiment but I’ve never seen anyone come up with any credible major untruth in the movie Bowling For Columbine. Complaining about ambiguous points in a documentary? Lol. It is to lol. Care to point out some part of the movie that was a “misrepresentation”?
More:
It’s not man-on-the-moon stuff, and one of the messages of Where to Invade Next is that so-called “greatness” is not the answer to America’s problems. Rather, competence is wherein lies America’s path to rejuvenation and progress. We’re talking about adequate pay and affordable healthcare. Functional schools and equitable criminal justice. The basics.
Moore’s ultimate flourish is a bit of rhetorical jiu-jitsu on the conservative chestnut that the U.S. is the world’s “indispensable nation.” We’re not indispensable because we “kick ass” in a tanks-and-carriers sort of way—as Moore explains at the beginning of the film, America has not won a war since 1945. Rather, we’re indispensable because we think creatively and generously and flexibly. We’re problem solvers. Most of the ideas that Moore seeks to claim for America and bring back for Americans were actually conceived of and first implemented in the United States, and Moore’s international interviewees acknowledge as much. Today’s America scoffs at “the people who brought you the weekend,” but the European labor organizers Moore talks to certainly don’t. They’re grateful for prior American efforts to ban child labor and to mandate a 40-hour work week. And they’re stunned by our current shabby state of affairs.
The movie opens February 12.
Bwahahahaha.
Shabby state of affairs? Really? You mean like Greece who cratered? Or Italy? Spain ? Those countries who have really, really awesome super-duper state of affairs?
Moore hasn’t a clue and is unlikely to ever find one.
Slee
I thought the shabby state of affairs had to do with his fitness.
Gyrate
January 6, 2016, 12:00pm
53
sleestak:
Bwahahahaha.
Shabby state of affairs? Really? You mean like Greece who cratered? Or Italy? Spain ? Those countries who have really, really awesome super-duper state of affairs?
Moore hasn’t a clue and is unlikely to ever find one.
Slee
Yeah, Greece was a surprise. I mean, with so few people paying taxes the economy ought to have been booming, right?
Does anyone really still give a rat’s ass what this narcissistic sociopath thinks? How much longer can he temporarily put his mansions and limousines and first class plane rides aside, put on a baseball cap and jeans and pretend to be an ordinary schlub fighting for the little guy before people finally catch on?!?
Hail_Ants:
Does anyone really still give a rat’s ass what this narcissistic sociopath thinks? How much longer can he temporarily put his mansions and limousines and first class plane rides aside, put on a baseball cap and jeans and pretend to be an ordinary schlub fighting for the little guy before people finally catch on?!?
Are we talking about Michael Moore, or Rush Limbaugh?
both are douchebags.
I’d call Rush narcissistic and pompous (and a hypocrite via his pill-popping), but at least he doesn’t pretend he isn’t wealthy.
Of course he’s narcissistic, he’s a film director, but the word “sociopath” means pretty much the opposite of what you seem to think it does.
so·ci·o·path
noun: sociopath; plural noun: sociopaths
a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience.*
Moore is anti-social and lacking in conscience in the respect that he is an egomaniac, a propagandist, and completely self-serving.
Oh, he’s anything but antisocial or lacking in conscience, and is serving a great deal more than himself. Of course he’s a propagandist, and we need more like him. As for ego, goes with the territory.