Michael Moore (Capitalism: A Love Story) starts Where to Invade Next with a fantasy: of being summoned to the Pentagon, and told by the USA’s military masterminds of their decades of failure in wars ranging from Korea to Iraq, as well as their uncertainty regarding what to do in general. To assist them in their time of need, he offers a solution. Jetting off around the world, he’ll venture into a new batch of countries, seeking out their best elements — not oil, but ways of life — to bring home.
It’s a clunky though somewhat irreverent setup for what becomes a two-hour exercise in comparing and contrasting America’s treatment of everything from worker rights and education to mind-altering substances and the prison system with that of their international peers. In Italy, employees are given eight weeks leave per year, as well as two hours to go home to eat in the middle of the day. In France, school children are served nutritious, chef-made, four-course meals for lunch, with the time deemed an important class. In Slovenia, university is free for all. In Portugal, drug use isn’t considered a crime. The list goes on.
The reactions of the global citizens encountered, all incredulous about the US’s less progressive, more oppressive differences, are as much Moore’s point as the freedoms and benefits that they enjoy. The Oscar-winning filmmaker doesn’t just present his usual patriotic, idealistic, entertaining man-of-the-people routine — both on-camera, interviewing officials and ordinary folks, and off-camera, providing humorously scathing narration — to point the finger at his homeland’s deficiencies. Nor is he content to complement them with blunt, juxtaposing footage to further illustrate the variance in thinking. Instead, he also gets his subjects, whether Finnish school teachers or Norwegian inmates, to convey their disbelief.
Their words of warning and disapproval say plenty, as they’re designed to. They also typify Where to Invade Next‘s struggle with the manner in which it tries to express its underlying message. Proposing that US society might develop a better way of tackling work-life balance, student fees, gender equality and more is sensible and stems from earnest intentions, as does recognising that the world superpower could learn from other places, or even endeavour to recapture the pioneering spirit that the nation was founded upon. Successfully and thoughtfully interrogating those sentiments beyond a ‘wouldn’t it be nice’ viewpoint and a cheeky, rousing mood — and through an examination of data rather than a procession of montages and sound bites — is much more difficult.
By gleefully championing a selective approach, packaging his content with a flimsy gimmick, and filling his latest feature with as much force as possible, Moore certainly proves that to be the case. As the persona he has cultivated over the likes of Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine and Sicko has demonstrated, passion for the cause of a better America remains his preferred point of focus, with his directorial style still purposefully but engagingly clumsy. Here, however, neither his personable perspective nor his low-key presentation can patch over the film’s lack of substance.
While an absence of subtlety may not be new for the crusading helmer, Where to Invade Next has Moore wielding a sledgehammer and a scattergun at once. Unsurprisingly, regardless of the validity of the points raised, bludgeoning audiences with pre-determined perceptions and jumping between superficial ‘grass is greener’ snippets makes for awkward viewing. Identifying America’s shortcomings and offering strategies to resolve them should be an easy sell, as the bulk of audience members who agree with the discussion but find themselves questioning the delivery will note. In Moore’s hands, it becomes an empty exercise and an overseas holiday, with both getting in the way of making a meaningful statement.
Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5
Where to Invade Next
Director: Michael Moore
USA, 2015, 120 mins
Release date: 7 April
Distributor: Madman
Rated: M
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