Arts & Events

Opens February 12 at the Landmark California

There are at least three good reasons folks should consider lining up for Michael Moore's newest documentary broadside: (1) Where to Invade Next is a very entertaining, informative and timely film, (2) The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has hobbled audience access with an R-rating, and (3) the director won't be able to promote the film as planned since he only recently emerged from an Intensive Care Unit in a New York hospital.

Where to Invade Next has already racked up a host of awards including Official Selection at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival and the New York film Festival. But the film also deserves a special trophy For Excellence in Timing.

You have to wonder whether Moore knew (before anyone else) that Bernie Sanders would be running for president in 2016. A Democratic Socialist couldn't have asked for a better film to debut in the midst of a maverick presidential campaign.  

 

Rë reason 3: Why the ICU? Well, as Moore explained: "I've come down with pneumonia." (In the course of shuttling between Flint, Michigan—to protest lead-poisoned water—and New York—to support Bernie Sanders.) "Let's just say things didn't look too good," Moore wrote from his hospital bed, "But thanks to a combination of good doctors, decent hospital food and 2^nd-term Obamacare, I'm doing much better." 

Rë reason 2: Why is the film rated R? Because of a single scene inside a bathhouse where three nonchalant Europeans casually—and nakedly—walk into a hot tub. (Moore refused to clip the five-second scene.) 

And that brings us to Reason 1. 

Where to Invade Next has already racked up a host of awards including Official Selection at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival and the New York film Festival. But the film also deserves a special trophy For Excellence in Timing. 

You have to wonder whether Moore knew (before anyone else) that Bernie Sanders would be running for president in 2016. A Democratic Socialist couldn't have asked for a better film to debut in the midst of a maverick presidential campaign. 

 

Contrary to Popular Opinion 

In Where To Invade Next, Moore uses some of his patented tropes to knock the blocks from beneath the wall of education/media-fed propaganda that, in today's America, passes for "popular belief." 

Moore points out that the United States—despite having the world's "largest army and greatest fighting force in history"—hasn't won a war since 1945. Since history shows Washington's bullets-and-bomb-based foreign policy doesn't yield positive results, Moore sets about invading a succession of other nations with an "untraditional" objective. Big Mike is not interested in seizing the mineral assets of his foreign targets. Instead, he's on a mission to expropriate the best ideas—proven, workable and affordable government programs that serve the people, protect public health, provide an educated electorate, and promote social equality and financial equity. 

Needless to say, he finds a lot of good stuff to steal. 

This is not exactly a new message. Life in the US has long suffered by comparison with the socialist nations of Scandinavia but Mike has his camera crew discover that even the near-bankrupt and struggling government in Italy continues to offer a buffet of social services that would make an average American drop-jaw-and-salivate in admiration. 

Facts on the Ground 

In Italy, Mike (our disheveled, larger-than-life Innocent Abroad) hangs out with a young Italian couple and expresses astonishment to learn that all Italian workers receive a two-month paid vacation. The Italians are equally astounded that Americans, on average, are lucky to get a one-week vacation. (Under current laws, US companies are not required to provide any vacation for employees.) If you're an Italian, however, you receive 13 months pay every year. That's right, you get paid for a 13^th month. Oh, and there are also two-hour lunches every workday and universal five-month paid maternity and paternity leave. 

In France, the camera shows Mike sitting down to sample some of the finest cuisine to be found in all of Europe. But he's not visiting some high-class French restaurant. Oh no, he's sharing a table with a classroom of grade school students who are being served food made from fresh ingredients by top-flight chefs working right there in school kitchens. And the kids don't have to line up to receive a daily dollop of "mystery food" plopped onto plastic plates, a la America. These kids are invited to dine with real glass cups, China plates and metal utensils. And they are served by crisply uniformed waiters who rush the cuisine directly to their tables. 

In Norway, Mike visits a prison that operates sans guns or punishment. Instead of harsh confinement, these open-air prisons rely on the chastising effects of ostracizing prisoners from society and separating them from friends and family. This is deemed a punishment enough. And it seems to work. With less crime in most European countries, there are fewer prisoners and fewer prisons. Instead of cells, inmates inhabit small cottages, complete with personal bedrooms, bathrooms and front yards for lounging whenever the mood strikes. In these facilities, it is the prisoners—not the guards—who hold the keys to their "places of confinement." 

Looking for a worst-case-scenario, Mike visits an isolated maximum security prison only to discover that the guards are unarmed and the walls are covered with modern art. 

The examples of a "parallel universe" of alternative realities abound. In Finland, Moore discovers, children are not burdened with homework. In school they are encouraged to cooperate and build things rather than engage in traditional learning and rote exercises. In Portugal there are no drug laws. Instead, there are drug treatment programs. And, consequently, there is no drug problem. In many European nations—including Slovenia and Germany—there is no such thing as "student debt" because university education is free and open to all. 

In Tunisia, Mike discovers that abortions are perfectly legal. While the Equal Rights Amendment failed to pass muster in the United States, Article 57 of Tunisia's post-revolution constitution assures that the rights contained in the ERA are guaranteed in Tunisia. Think of it: An Arab nation with a predominantly Sunni population provides free, state-supported abortions and health care for women! 

In Iceland, the country (unlike the US) refused to bail out the bankers, speculators and hedge-fund manipulators responsible for the global economic meltdown of 2008. Instead, they actually put a number of bankers on trial and marched them off to prison. There was just one bank that did not fail, Moore reports. It was the only bank owned and operated by women. 

Moore's footage makes the point with two contrasting scenes. The first shows a mob of testosterone-fueled male traders making bets, taking risks, jostling for space, gripping smartphones, yelling and shaking fists full of paperwork. These are the guys whose banks crumbled. 

The next scene is quite a contrast. Here, the bankers are sitting down, comforatblty relaxed in a neatly organized office where piles of transactions stand neatly bound and stacked on tabletops. This is the bank that didn't fail. Why? Maybe because the people behind the desks are all women. And they are all relaxed and smiling. 

Mike's observation: "With men it's 'me'. With women it's 'we.'" That is why, in some Scandinavian nations, the law requires that at least 40% of all board members must be women. Neither men nor women can constitute more than 60% of a board. This is one of several examples where Where To Invade Next displays a very clear—and well-argued—feminist bias. (At a November 2015 film screening, a group of female reviewers hung back in the lobby, smiling broadly and praising Moore's work. As one woman happily observed: "He really gets it!") 

"Hammer! Chisel! Down!" 

Mike even gets to "invade" Germany and revisit the Berlin Wall. Thanks to some archival footage, we are treated to a 1989 flashback of Michael and a friend helping to chisel away the once-implacable barricade. (This is one of several spots in the movie where you get the idea that Michael Moore never travels anywhere without a film crew in tow.) Mike's point here is that this monolithic impediment was long deemed irremovable but it came it down—spectacularly—not because of some government dictate or mass corporate mobilization. No, it was taken down by thousands of human hands grabbing small tools—hammers, mallets, chisels—and having at it. 

Mike's Takeaway: When it comes to changing human history—even when faced with seemingly impossible odds—collective human effort can work miracles. In a case of the Berlin Wall, it was a simple matter of "Hammer, Chisel, Down. Rinse and repeat." 

In several of his stops, Big Mike asks where these crafty foreigners came up with these bizarre strategies for dealing with imprisonment, healthcare, quality food, and humane working conditions. More often than not, he is told that these ideas we're borrowed from America—a different, younger America. The surprising and sad truth is that the US has a long (albeit largely forgotten) history of introducing progressive social experiments. 

Mike's concluding observation is that, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, the ability to "find our way back home" has been right under our noses all along. The film ends with a close-up of Dorothy's feet in her ruby slippers and her heels clicking three times. 

Moore's last voice-over in the film is a simple, engaging question: "Kansas anyone?" 

The closing music features the line: "Will you lead or will you follow?" 

The message is clear: Come on, Toto. Come on, Bernie. It's time to get clicking.