Review: Where To Invade Next

Imagine a montage of mayhem flashing before your eyes: ideas of freedom keenly juxtaposed a video clip of Eric Garner crying, "I can't breathe", images of riots and other various examples of the American populace falling apart, debt climbing and people hurting; all ambitiously accompanied by the glaringly recognizable INCEPTION soundtrack -- a move which induces a chuckle, but in all its irony, still proves a point. So begins Michael Moore's new film, WHERE TO INVADE NEXT.

Moore has the uncanny ability to polarize an audience, whether it's with his political views or with the way he presents them. So when he decides to travel across Europe under the pretense of "invading" each country -- with American flag in hand, he searches for ideas to steal and bring back to America to claim as its own -- the fact that he is able to talk with so many presidents and heads of state is astounding.

This tongue-in-cheek European tour begins in Italy, claiming the Italian structure for paid leave as America's (fun fact: Italy gives everyone eight weeks of paid vacation a year, and women get five months of paid maternity leave). He then works his way through various countries, collecting other various ideas -- standards of health food, sex education, general education (and cost thereof), the criminal system, and accountability (of immediate and historical proportions) -- to bring back to the Mother Country. Sounds like a lot of issues to tackle in a two-hour film, and there is far too much truth in that -- Moore tends to focus on the surface, revealing the benefits but not the application. But while each claim that Moore makes could have a movie all to itself, at least the conversation is sparked with WHERE TO INVADE NEXT.

Overall, it is an informative film with many relatable moments (though not without their bias), and at least for this reviewer, makes picking up and moving a compelling idea. But with a film like this, you need to have action following after. For the sake of America, one can only hope. WHERE TO INVADE NEXT is now playing at the Midtown Cinema!