Where to Invade Next

Studio: Dog Eat Dog Films
Directed by Michael Moore

Dec 23, 2015 By Shawn Hazelett Web Exclusive

The Joint Chiefs of Staff convene to discuss all American military failures since WWII. Convinced they need fresh ideas, they summon Michael Moore, who advises that America must better appropriate the riches of their downed foes. Impressed, he’s given the go-ahead to “invade” a series of European countries, pillaging each for a key societal advantage: Italy for its generous paid time off, Finland’s world class educational system, Norway’s liberal prison system, and Portugal’s lax regard to drugs, among others.

This is the conceit for Where to Invade Next, a string of short documentaries that attempt to tackle various social issues in America without actually showing anything in America. A half-responsible filmgoer will understand the issues at stake beforehand, but a filmmaker who’s made a career on presenting his take on an issue’s origins and deeper meanings here only presents solutions. An audience must enter with his requisite social conscience and prepare to be prodded towards conclusions that are harmlessly obvious at best and shamelessly self-indulgent at worst: at one point Moore discusses the Berlin Wall, which serves no purpose but to say how he helped knock it down. The scope and plurality of the film only gives license to the platitudinous, reductive filmmaking that has marked the latter half of his career.

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