Worth: $18.00
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Cast:
Michael Moore, President Donald J. Trump
Intro:
Michael Moore comes on with such fulsome, search-and-destroy rage that it’s like he’s actually taken on the role of a cinematic suicide bomber…
It’s certainly obvious now: you’re either with Michael Moore, or you’re not, and the release of his new film will be met with both raucous cheers of approval and right-from-the-pit-of-the-gut groans. But even with that in mind, Moore’s latest, Fahrenheit 11/9 – a follow-up of sorts to his 2004 George W. Bush bash, Fahrenheit 911 – comes hurtling into cinemas like a fiery tornado. Yes, the principal (and very easy) target here is President Donald J. Trump, but Michael Moore has plenty to say about the American political system in general, and he gives it to, well, just about everybody over the course of his film’s propulsive, utterly compelling two-plus hours. Moore comes on with such fulsome, search-and-destroy rage that it’s like he’s actually taken on the role of a cinematic suicide bomber, bizarrely echoing his tastelessly hilarious caricatured portrayal in Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s mind-blowing Team America.
Though beginning as an on-screen excoriation of Trump (unsurprisingly, Moore sets him up as a true ogre – a man for whom money is king, and one so sleazily driven that he even sets his own daughter up as a sex object), Fahrenheit 11/9 soon reveals that it has a far larger gallery of villains. And boy, do they cop it in the neck: Hillary Clinton is shown as a cheap shill and all-round sham; her philandering husband is painted as a hypocrite who sold out Democrat ideals; Barrack Obama is smeared as a tin hero drinking greedily from the corporate trough; the Democratic Party is blighted as an empty vessel that long ago sold out its own values; and Rick Snyder – the Michigan governor who forced poisoned water on Moore’s horribly depressed hometown of Flint – is depicted as a reptilian bad guy with no equal. Moore goes after these apparent liars and thieves with such venom that it’s impossible not to get caught up in his very personal crusade.
To Michael Moore, the American political system is irrevocably broken, and the filmmaker – who literally looks physically worn down by what’s been going on in his country – sees his beloved nation’s only hope for the future as non-traditional players like the passionate kids who organised the massive anti-gun rally, March For Our Lives; the progressive Bernie Sanders (who Moore states was literally robbed in his run for office); and various other socially focused fringe “intruders” into the grotesquely corrupt world of Washington. Moore’s final fists-out, raise-the-alarm warning about where America is headed under Donald J. Trump (not to mention his scathing indictment of how the decidedly-not-self-made billionaire got to the top) will chill you to the bone…unless, of course, you’re in The President’s camp, in which case this doco will register as just another piece of fake news.
Michael Moore is America’s gift to the world. For me, each of the documentaries that he has made are required viewing. Amongst the humour and the takedowns there are always serious issues being exposed and Michael Moore is the master. In Fahrenheit 11/9 Michael Moore delivers the goods once again.