What starts as a fairly interesting film about how foreign countries feed and teach their children goes off the rails and loses any sense of focus in this, the latest junk food documentary from goofball Michael Moore.

The premise for this one has a flag toting Moore representing America “invading” other countries and threatening to steal ideas like great school cafeterias and free tuition. Moore has a way of presenting scintillating factoids only to cloud their presentation with dopey and gimmicky showboating.

The bit where he plants American flags and says he’s claiming shit for America is lame the first time, and incredibly mundane the tenth. There’s just something about this guy when he gets all sad and somber and scary with his narrations that makes me want to throw a small car at the movie screen.

As usual, Moore presents some facts about other great countries while demonizing the one we live in. Sure, we have much room for improvement, but so do the countries Moore visits in the movie.

Oddly enough, we only see the really good stuff other countries have to offer with only mere small mentions of any problems they might be having. Moore has a history of twisting and playing with the facts to match up with his agenda, and this movie is no exception. Plus, it just isn’t very well made. It’s sloppy and lazy documentary filmmaking.

This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2016.

5 replies on “Cinema Clips: Where to Invade Next”

  1. I just could not disagree more with this review! I thought the film was fun and interesting and it actually explores many things that I have heard of but not seen. As he speaks to education specialists in Finland and prison administrators in Norway, he answers questions I have long held about HOW do these things work, not just whether or not they do. I do agree that the flag planting is gimmicky, as is Moore’s presence in the film,but it is quite interesting to see how the various foreigners respond to him (especially the kids at the school where he is sampling their school lunch). Drilling down into things that we could do better is one of his skills, and it is not missing here. I don’t think he takes shots at our country–in fact, I think he is hyper-patriotic–he takes shots at our idiotic “American exceptionalism” that reflexively proclaims that everything we do we do best. I saw the film with a foreigner who lives here and he did not find any of the implied criticisms that Moore launches unfair or surprising–they are the same questions he has been asking himself for years. I agree wholeheartedly, and I don’t think I’m alone in asking why can’t we have single payer healthcare, why can’t we have creative and innovative schooling, why can’t we have less lock-ups or lockdowns, why can’t we have free college education, etc. In fact, these days plenty of people are asking these questions, as we should if we are active participants in the political process (see: Bernie Sanders supporters).

    One thing in particular that I was happy about–I usually focus my energies on improving TUSD and public education in general. The Finns, not surprisingly, leave us in the dust in terms of curriculum and achievement, and they do it with less classroom hours, less homework, and almost NO bubble tests. I was really pleased to see that in action in this film. But when it comes to school lunches, I have to say, TUSD food service does TRY in any case, to approach the healthy and creative food that shows up in this film. With the wonderful work of Moses Thompson and others, more and more school gardens are providing food for the school table, and the food service’s “fusion” recipes are wonderful. My child happens to be in a bland phase, and the wait time at his high school is too long for him to actually take advantage of the great options, but the recipes are good, and healthy, and far from the slop that is presented in this movie (and that I know from the past) as the “typical school lunch”.

  2. A grimm review for sure and one that misses the point. In the xenophobic, jingoistic times we live in, Moores film reminds us what we have lost… as for the flag, that’s just a symbolic visual image to refer back to where we need to resurrect these ideals -the good ol’
    U S of A… before the neoconservative “greed is good” mindset replaced humanism in this country.

  3. I probably agree almost totally with Michael Moore’s political positions. I haven’t seen this film yet and it probably wouldn’t infuriate me as much as it did Mr Grimm. But he’s absolutely right. Moore does have a history of twisting and playing with the facts to match up with his agenda. I remember having a “throw a small car” moment when watching Sicko.

    It’s not about the political position, it’s about the manipulation. Some people consider Michael Moore and the likes of Rush Limbaugh polar opposites. To me, they are 2 sides of the same coin.

  4. “In the xenophobic, jingoistic times we live in,” by Illiance. God forbid we screen and be selective of the people we ALLOW to enter this country.

    Immune systems are xenophobic, should we protest them?

    Michael Moore is now irrelevant.

    He had a good run, and provided some opposing opinions on issues, but he is also a hypocrite and a huckster.

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