Michael Moore Invades Every Other Country in New Documentary Trailer

Along the way, Moore finds fascinating subjects to speak to, including a Norwegian father who lost his son in the Utøya massacre yet does not seek retribution and a compelling Tunisian journalist who implores Americans, conquerers of global culture, to look beyond themselves and express curiosity about the vast world outside their borders. “Funny and always on-topic without going overboard, it’s an engaging film that could broaden Moore’s fan base”.

But in a question-and-answer session with the audience after the world premiere of Where to Invade Next at the Toronto global Film Festival, Moore threw some bombs that will be red meat for his most ardent conservative critics: comparing aspects of the USA political system to apartheid, attacking the mainstream media for helping the US government keep citizens fearful and ignorant of the rest of the world, and calling America’s treatment of women and African-Americans the country’s “original sin”. It plays like a variation of the popular Travel Channel show Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations but with social policies instead of fine cuisine. That includes eight weeks of paid vacation for workers in Italy, no-homework schooling in Finland, gourmet school lunches in France, free college tuition in Slovenia, a rehab-focused prison system in Denmark and the prosecution of those who caused the bank collapse in Iceland. And it’s just very bad! Not just Americans either! “If you want to know why I didn’t point out Italy’s high unemployment rate, my answer to you is that I went there to pick the flowers and not the weeds”.

After the screening, Moore took part in an audience Q&A, where he expanded on the optimistic tone of the film – a contrast to his previous hits Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11. “We need to get off our (butts) and do something and get inspired”. But Moore hasn’t made a film since the underwhelming “Capitalism: A Love Story” in 2009, and has all but appeared to have retired from the filmmaking game. Pointing to things like the fall of the Berlin Wall, which he witnessed as a young man, and more recently, America’s legalization of gay marriage and watershed women’s rights movements like Patricia Arquette’s Oscar speech, Moore said he realized that “anything can happen”.