Review of Where to Invade Next (2015) by Mike L — 17 Feb 2016

Love him or hate him, Michael Moore is a skilled filmmaker. Unlike his other films, "Where to Invade Next" is aimed at being more educational and thoughtful instead of an inflammatory flame piece against conservatives. Of course there are a few digs at Dubya and others, but the film doesn't present Obama in the most positive light either.

The mildly sarcastic premise is great: Michael Moore treks across the globe to "invade" countries and "steal" their best social ideas to bring back to America. He explores women's rights, education, prison systems, drug policies, sex ed, welfare, commerce, workers' rights and more. The segment on school lunches in France versus in America was at once enlightening and depressing. When Moore shows a table of French school children photos of actual American school lunches, they nearly recoil in horror - and I had the same reaction. Another high point was Moore's visit to Tunisia, the unlikely site of a women's rights revolution. He heads to Italy to interview workers and factory owners, Slovenia to talk to college students, Norway to explore their prison system, Finland to visit schools, Iceland for an education on their financial crisis, as well as stops in Portugal, Germany and France.