I'm getting sorta sick of Michael Moore. I'm glad he's an outspoken advocate for progressive and populist causes and generally very rational, but his shtick is getting old. I am especially getting sick of his movies being considered plain documentaries rather than polemical arguments, which is really what they are. It has been a long time since Moore actually *documented* anything - at least since Roger and Me, if he ever did it. His films are more angry now and much less connected to reality-based thinking. His logic has gone out the window and he is mostly shrill and behaves like a prick.
The love story Moore describes in this film is between capitalists and their money - how original! He shows how when he was a kid, everything was wonderful and how government regulations and the tax code made corporate profit irrelevant and how everything was wonderful. The he shows how Reagan deregulated stuff and lowered the taxes so rich people could become super rich. Then he shows how everything went to hell after that. Then he interviews New York intellectual/actor/writer/bon vivant Wallace Shawn about economics - because, uh, Wally once took a class in college called Econ 101.
The biggest problem with the film is that there is absolutely no structure and it is paced so slowly that it feels like it's 4 hours long and dull the whole time. It's as if Moore wrote all his little beefs on slips of paper, put them in a hat and pulled them out randomly - and then filmed them all and put them all on screen. It list feels like it's one totally random point after another with nothing connecting them (for 130 minutes!).
Somehow Moore's argument (I don't mean to ruin it for you) is that democracy is the antidote to capitalism. Uh, I have no idea how that works, actually. Is he suggesting that we don't currently live in a democracy? I totally hate greed and gigantic multinational organizations as much as the next guy, but I would also concede that America is a democracy. Sure, people with money are able to adjust laws to make democracy work better for them than their poor neighbor, but capitalism is not the opposite of democracy. (For that matter, Michael, New Orleans didn't flood because of too much capitalism either.)
By far the most frustrating section of the movie, for it's sheer partisanship and foolishness, is the last part dealing with Obama. Moore totally pulls his punches and basically lets off Obama scott-free with barely a minimal amount of criticism of his financial program. This omission is most visible in the opening sequence where we see a family in Peoria, Illinois being evicted from their now-foreclosed home. The time stamp on the video shows February, 2009 - a few weeks after Obama took office. If Moore was the least bit consistant, he would criticize Obama for not freezing foreclosures (which was a plan offerecd by Hillary Clinton, for whatever it's worth). Instead, the eviction of this and another family are symbols of a broken system, and Obama remains a heroic change agent.
Later, Moore mentions that Tim Geithner was the president of the NY Fed and oversaw the massive bailout of New York companies before becoming Treasury Secretary - but he literally mentioned that Obama made him Treasury Secretary. (In other words, he says that Geithner is a bad guy, but doesn't say that Obama gave the bad guy a more powerful job.) This is simply lazy and not the whole truth of the story.
I'm just sick of Moore's shtick. I generally agree with his overall message, but they are hard to like because his movies are so sloppy. By the time he goes to Wall Street to 'collect our money' back from the banks who got the TARP funds, I was just watching the clock hoping the movie would end. It is a cheap stunt that doesn't move the story along at all and just makes security guards at the banks look like jerks. How very middle class of you, Mike!
I would love for there to be more regulation of banks and real estate, but capitalism isn't the bad guy - deregulation and low taxes and old-fashioned greed are. Moore needed a better writer and editor for this movie. It was all over the place and didn't say anything new at all. Everything that was said was so unfocused that all his points were undermined by their fuzziness and silliness.
Stars: .5 of 4 (He would have gotten 1 star if he had not been on every news and talk show for the past month saying absolutely nothing constructive, original or rational.)
The love story Moore describes in this film is between capitalists and their money - how original! He shows how when he was a kid, everything was wonderful and how government regulations and the tax code made corporate profit irrelevant and how everything was wonderful. The he shows how Reagan deregulated stuff and lowered the taxes so rich people could become super rich. Then he shows how everything went to hell after that. Then he interviews New York intellectual/actor/writer/bon vivant Wallace Shawn about economics - because, uh, Wally once took a class in college called Econ 101.
The biggest problem with the film is that there is absolutely no structure and it is paced so slowly that it feels like it's 4 hours long and dull the whole time. It's as if Moore wrote all his little beefs on slips of paper, put them in a hat and pulled them out randomly - and then filmed them all and put them all on screen. It list feels like it's one totally random point after another with nothing connecting them (for 130 minutes!).
Somehow Moore's argument (I don't mean to ruin it for you) is that democracy is the antidote to capitalism. Uh, I have no idea how that works, actually. Is he suggesting that we don't currently live in a democracy? I totally hate greed and gigantic multinational organizations as much as the next guy, but I would also concede that America is a democracy. Sure, people with money are able to adjust laws to make democracy work better for them than their poor neighbor, but capitalism is not the opposite of democracy. (For that matter, Michael, New Orleans didn't flood because of too much capitalism either.)
By far the most frustrating section of the movie, for it's sheer partisanship and foolishness, is the last part dealing with Obama. Moore totally pulls his punches and basically lets off Obama scott-free with barely a minimal amount of criticism of his financial program. This omission is most visible in the opening sequence where we see a family in Peoria, Illinois being evicted from their now-foreclosed home. The time stamp on the video shows February, 2009 - a few weeks after Obama took office. If Moore was the least bit consistant, he would criticize Obama for not freezing foreclosures (which was a plan offerecd by Hillary Clinton, for whatever it's worth). Instead, the eviction of this and another family are symbols of a broken system, and Obama remains a heroic change agent.
Later, Moore mentions that Tim Geithner was the president of the NY Fed and oversaw the massive bailout of New York companies before becoming Treasury Secretary - but he literally mentioned that Obama made him Treasury Secretary. (In other words, he says that Geithner is a bad guy, but doesn't say that Obama gave the bad guy a more powerful job.) This is simply lazy and not the whole truth of the story.
I'm just sick of Moore's shtick. I generally agree with his overall message, but they are hard to like because his movies are so sloppy. By the time he goes to Wall Street to 'collect our money' back from the banks who got the TARP funds, I was just watching the clock hoping the movie would end. It is a cheap stunt that doesn't move the story along at all and just makes security guards at the banks look like jerks. How very middle class of you, Mike!
I would love for there to be more regulation of banks and real estate, but capitalism isn't the bad guy - deregulation and low taxes and old-fashioned greed are. Moore needed a better writer and editor for this movie. It was all over the place and didn't say anything new at all. Everything that was said was so unfocused that all his points were undermined by their fuzziness and silliness.
Stars: .5 of 4 (He would have gotten 1 star if he had not been on every news and talk show for the past month saying absolutely nothing constructive, original or rational.)
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