YOF2017 #2 | Where to Invade Next (2016)

With the deadline looming for the Fake Geeks teams to submit our lists for Top 15 films of 2016 (so we can populate a combined Top 20 list), I’ve been using every medium possible to catch up. In this case, I used my trusty Lovefilm account to grab this doc from last summer.

The original review was posted at Fake Geeks, but you can read it in full below.

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Directed by | Michael Moore
Produced by | Carl Deal, Tia Lessin, Michael Moore
Written by | Michael Moore
Starring / Narrated by | Michael Moore
Run Time | 120 minutes
Certificate | 15

Plot |  Michael Moore goes on a fact finding mission to discover which policies would benefit the United States, were they to adopt them.

Review | Michael Moore documentaries can be more than a little hit or miss. He can make moving pieces (Bowling for Columbine), as well as films that lift a lid on profit-driven governmental policies (Sicko). He can also make sensationalistic, conspiracy-theory guff (Fahrenheit 911). Though lighter in tone to all those previously mentioned, Where to Invade Next thankfully harkens back to his work on Sicko more than anything else.

For those that remember his 2007 feature on the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, you may recall a scene where he goes to France and asks questions of how the system works there. We discover that their higher tax rates take care of a number of issues, which expands past the limits of healthcare briefly to discuss paid leave for life events (such as your Honeymoon or moving house). Where to Invade Next can be boiled down to being a near two hour version of this scene, focussing on many facets of every-day life.

After a mildly humorous, fictional set-up (he explains that the Government has asked his opinion on where they should invade next), Moore treks across to Europe and Northern Africa with the idea of pilfering any ideas he comes across that could be of benefit to the US of A.

While Moore’s film making style and overt political leanings are never going to win over staunchy conservative right-wingers, Where to Invade Next is a nonetheless entertaining film, and some of the things he discovers about each of the countries he visits is genuinely surprising (the amount of paid annual leave Italians get may raise an eyebrow, as may Norway’s prison system, Slovenia’s free University education or Portugal’s stance on drug possession).

In a departure from many of his other releases, Moore retains a relatively light tone throughout and even offers a surprisingly upbeat outlook come the conclusion. This helps elevate Where to Invade Next towards the better end of ‘good’.

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The Verdict | Moore’s refreshingly upbeat and light tone helps make Where to Invade Next an interesting and entertaining documentary.

4/5

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YOF#17 | Kill the Messenger

#17
Kill the Messenger
Blu-Ray via Lovefilm

**Contains spoilers**

 

In the mid-1990s, journalist Gary Webb uncovered an alleged connection between the CIA and the importing of crack cocaine to the USA from Nicaragua.

The film tells the story of the initial discovery, the publishing of his exposé, and the fallout thereafter, with Jeremy Renner taking the leading role.

I’d read mixed, but generally positive reviews around the time this came out, but missed it at the cinema for whatever reason. I can now say that my opinion falls pretty much in the mid-range.

Renner is pretty good in the lead role. He’s sympathetic and unflashy; you can buy him as the decent reporter that never really got a big break. The supporting cast is good too, be it from Rosemarie DeWitt playing his wife Susan, Mary ELizabeth Winstead as his editor Anna, and Oliver Platt as her boss Jerry,  to the numerous walk-ons from the likes of Ray Liotta, Michael Sheen, Richard Schiff, Robert Patrick, Andy Garcia and Michael K. Williams.

The first third is really good. This is the act that deals with the initial leak, and the investigation into the alleged crimes. The middle third is solid – a mix of light conspiracy, with some isolationism thrown in (Webb’s colleagues try to polite distance themselves from the story). Unfortunately, the final third is a let down (despite a great cameo from Liotta). While it is pretty criminal how Webb is shunned and hounded out, it doesn’t make for the most compelling conclusion. Admittedly, this is a real story that is being told, and you can’t change the truth to suit yourselves (unlike the CIA in this!).

Ultimately, Kill the Messenger starts out as a pulsating thriller and ends as a merely good, saddening and cautionary tale on the dangers of contemporary journalism. [3.5]