Where to Invade Next

Michael Moore's documentary, built on a joke of a premise. Moore assigns himself to invade other countries on America's behalf. The spoils he takes are not territory but ideas. In each country he picks one practice, plants his flag and declares he is taking it home. What he finds: paid leave in Italy, school lunches in France, an education system in Finland built without homework or standardised tests, free university in Slovenia, the prison regime in Norway, drug policy in Portugal, women in charge in Iceland. The limits of the method are plain and the film does not conceal them: Moore takes only the good from each country, deliberately skips the problems, and says so himself. Which makes the documentary not a study of countries but a criticism aimed at America; the real subject is not the places visited but what exists there and not at home. Its closing idea is that most of these practices are American in origin and were abandoned there. A typical example for anyone who likes Moore's method and comparative political documentary. For a viewer expecting a balanced study, the film declares its bias at the outset and stays that way.