Being a freshman in high school in 2004 made me a prime target for Michael Moore. I sang his praises left and right, and I shoved my DVD of Fahrenheit 9/11 into all of my friends’ faces. Like most teenagers, I was an insufferable twit. I’ll stand by Sicko (except the awful gimmick of trying to go to Guantanamo Bay), but Moore’s films are better for starting conversations rather than proposing genuine solutions. I’m betting that Where to Invade Next will be about the same.
But good Lord, what an awful trailer. Trying to sell Michael Moore as a personality pretty much dooms this thing from the outset. And what in the name of the Rosetta Stone was going on at the end of that trailer? Was Moore telling a story to some kids and doing voices for all the characters? The reactions of the kids was the exact reaction I was having. It was like something out of a nightmare and if the movie contains that scene, I don’t know if I’ll be able to sit through it.
His intent (as is often the case with Moore) is admirable: let’s look at how the rest of the world deals with certain issues and try and learn from them. Granted, no situation is an apples-to-apples comparison, but it never hurts to see how other people solve problems.
You pretty much know if you’re the audience for this movie (but really, does Moore even have a strong audience anymore? It feels like he peaked real early), so no need to trash the guy in the comments. I think Trey Parker & Matt Stone did a pretty good job of that:
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