Where to Invade Next (2015)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Where to Invade Next (2015) – M. Moore

Affectionately referred to as “Mike’s Happy Movie” by his team, it is impossible not to feel overwhelming and terrible cognitive dissonance when watching Michael Moore’s 2015 film.  Of course, Moore was/is still in the business of trying to get America to lift her game; here, by travelling the world to highlight how other countries do things better (healthcare, education, workers’ rights, and so on).  The pointed implication (for Obama at the time) was that military spending makes up too much of the budget and the money could be better spent on other priorities (as other countries successfully do).  Of course, those other countries are clearly idealized and the whole film/presentation is light-hearted and comic, with Moore playing faux-naïve at how everything is different elsewhere.  However, now that Trump and his cronies are in charge, the likelihood of any of the changes proposed actually happening seems miniscule and my get-up-and-go has got-up-and-went.  But, really we do need to resist!  If anything, I feel hope that the left has been galvanized by recent events – it just remains to be seen whether the energy that has materialized can be channelled into profitable avenues for real change.