Netflix says: Filmmaker Michael Moore (Sicko, Fahrenheit 9/11) takes on capitalism's roots, the floundering U.S. economy, and 2008's global financial meltdown and subsequent bank bailout in this rousing documentary. Combining stories about those who suffer most from Corporate America's greed and insatiable thirst for profits and the people most responsible for myriad crises, Moore embarks on another shocking fact-finding rampage.
Matt says: Michael Moore is an interesting fellow. I’ll give him props for exposing the crap that we get fed to us and blindly follow… but, you know, I just don’t like the way he does it. His “documentaries” are one sided arguments that pander to self-minded people. And the result of this, to steal the perfect phrase from Bamboo Nation’s review on Netflix, is nothing more than righteous indignation. Moore’s “documentaries” tend to follow the same pattern: express a liberal idea that does have negative consequences and injustices, show how the downtrodden are being effected by these negativities with a sad song (preferably from the 60s), point the blame at a bunch of untouchable corporate giants, make a humorous (but useless) attempt to confront those giants, mention something about Flint fucking Michigan, cut to a few shots of President G.W. Bush looking confused, show an example of average blue collar working folks making small victories against the injustices, show a black and white “how it could have been” hindsight montage, and then close with a smattering of hope. It’s the combination to a middle-aged liberal’s heart strings. Yet, again to quote Bamboo Nation, “you're mad as hell, but you don't really know what you're supposed to do about it.” Moore is never clear cut with his solutions, omits the other side of the argument, and no one watches his films that aren’t already in agreement with him. To me, that seems like a waste. Now, with his name being synonymous with “that holier than thou filmmaker who makes anyone who’s not liberal look like an asshole”, no one but those he’s preaching to will benefit from the parts of his “documentaries” that are actually informative. It seems like the wrong way to go about it. If he was smart, he would start producing documentaries (notice no quotation marks this time?) that are informative, concise, anonymous, and not filled with conjecture, conspiracies, and asinine publicity stunts. Keep in mind that in this review I am only judging the film and the way Moore made it, not the core messages which usually merit attention. “Capitalism: A Love Story”, as a film, gets 2 1/2 stars.
Posted by: |