Michael Moore‘s first documentary in six years is one of his most optimistic films ever. The firebrand filmmaker, best known for the scorched-earth humor of “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Bowling for Columbine,” still shows his angry side at times in “Where To Invade Next,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday night. But on the whole, this is a film that looks for the good rather than pointing fingers at the bad.
In its first screening anywhere, it was greeted with repeated laughter and applause during the film and an extended standing ovation afterwards.
“We were digging for something else in this movie,” said Moore when he introduced the film at the Princess of Wales Theatre. “It’s called the American soul.”
The premise of the film is that the Joint Chiefs of Staff have called a secret meeting with Moore and admitted to him, “Michael, we don’t know what the f— we’re doing,” calling off any further military intervention around the world and asking Moore to do the invading from now on.
But that’s just a jokey setup for the real movie, which involves the filmmaker traveling from country to country and trying to “steal” the things they do better than the United States. 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, the prosecution of those who caused the bank collapse in Iceland …
The film gets lots of mileage out of Moore’s befuddled looks when people in other countries explain to him the way things work there, and their befuddled looks when he explains how the U.S. does the same things a lot differently.
One particularly priceless exchange came when Moore shows photos of American school lunches to a chef responsible for lunches at a French school. “Frankly, that’s not food,” says the chef.
The film lacks the focus of previous Moore films like “Roger and Me,” “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11.” It’s scattershot, hopping from one country to another and one issue to another until it gets a little wearying.
The director pointed out in the post-screening Q&A that the film won’t quiet his most avid critics, who are sure to point out that he’s cherry-picking policies he likes in Europe, but leaves out the economic woes that have followed.
“I know what the headlines are going to be like from my critics tomorrow,” he said. “But if you want to know why I didn’t mention Italy’s high unemployment rate or whatever, the reason is that I went there to pick the flowers, not the weeds.”
Those flowers make for one of Moore’s funniest films, and one that is sure to play well to fans of his previous work. And the common threads running through “Where To Invade Next” make it stronger: labor is a key theme for the first half of the film, the empowerment of women one in the second half.
The conclusion is a powerful one that further helps to make this “Mike’s Happy Movie,” as Moore points out that many of the great ideas he’s been touting originated in the United States.
“We don’t need to invade,” he says near the end of the film. “We just need to go to the American lost and found.”
19 Must-See Movies at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival (Photos)
With 289 features playing at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, picking favorites can be impossible. But here are some on TheWrap's to-do list
Courtesy of TIFF
"Trumbo"
Director Jay Roach has found a niche in political movies for HBO, and here he tackles the Hollywood blacklist with Bryan Cranston as banned author and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and Helen Mirren as powerful gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.
Groundswell Productions
"I Saw the Light"
British actor Tom Hiddleston has the lean, haunted look to play country music icon Hank Williams, but can he nail the voice in Marc Abraham’s biopic?
Sony Pictures Classics
"Where to Invade Next"
Michael Moore hasn’t made a documentary since "Capitalism, a Love Story" six years ago, but the current political climate seems ready-made for his fiery and funny approach.
Dog Eat Dog Films
"Spotlight"
With its top-notch ensemble cast including Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams, director Tom McCarthy’s journalism procedural wowed audiences in Venice and Telluride with its depiction of a team of Boston Globe reporters uncovering the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal.
Anonymous Content
"Beasts of No Nation"
It’s reportedly hard to watch, but Cary Fukanaga’s child-soldier drama has early critics throwing around comparisons to "Apocalypse Now."
Red Crown Productions
"Freeheld"
Peter Sollett’s timely true story of a lesbian couple in New Jersey who went to court to fight for pension rights stars Julianne Moore and Ellen Page, a formidable team.
Double Feature Films
"Every Thing Will Be Fine"
After he made the brilliant 3D dance documentary "Pina," German director Wim Wenders said he was going to make an intimate 3D drama – and the result is this film, which stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Rachel McAdams and James Franco, who apparently must by law have at least one film in every film festival.
IFC Films
"The Martian"
Is Ridley Scott’s space odyssey a popcorn movie, or a true awards contender? TIFF audiences will be the first to decide.
Twentieth Century Fox
"Room"
The buzz out of Telluride is that 8-year-old Jacob Tremblay is a revelation, and maybe an awards contender, for his role in Lenny Abrahamson’s dark drama about a boy raised inside a small room where he and his mother (Brie Larson) are imprisoned.
Reactions from Venice and Telluride say the violence is brutal but Johnny Depp is great (and a strong Oscar contender) as mobster Whitey Bulger, making Scott Cooper’s drama a hot ticket.
Warner Bros
"Un Plus Une"
French director Claude Lelouch, best-known for his 1996 film "A Man and a Woman," is working with "The Artist" star (and Oscar winner) Jean Dujardin in a story about a film composer finding love on a trip to India.
Les Films 13
"Anomalisa"
Charlie Kaufman, the writer of "Being John Malkovich" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," made his directorial debut with the thorny "Synecdoche, New York" seven years ago, and his second film (a collaboration with Duke Johnson) is a stop-motion animation production that sounds just as odd and intriguing as his past work.
Front Row Filmed Entertainment
"The Program"
On the heels of the Oscar-nominated "Philomena," director Stephen Frears turns his sights to the Lance Armstrong saga, with Ben Foster as the disgraced cyclist.
StudioCanal
"Stonewall"
Roland Emmerich, the director best known for disaster epics like "Independence Day," gets serious and intimate with the story of the game-changing 1969 New York City riots that helped launch the gay rights movement.
Roadside Attractions
"Heart of a Dog"
Laurie Anderson’s first film in almost 30 years is ostensibly about her dog, but fans of the musician and performance artist know it’ll really be about far, far more than that.
Abramorama
"The Danish Girl"
Tom Hooper’s "The King’s Speech" had a coronation of sorts in Toronto on its way to winning Best Picture, giving his transgender drama with Eddie Redmayne a high bar to reach.
Focus Features
“Desierto”
Writer-director Jonás Cuarón was working on this script when he joined his father Alfonso and took a detour to make the Oscar-winning “Gravity,” but this tale of tensions along the U.S./Mexican border couldn't be timelier.
Esperanto Kino
“Thru You Princess”
Ido Haar’s documentary has one of TIFF’s wildest true stories: Israeli musician Kutiman, who assembles videos from the work of amateur performers he finds on YouTube, in the process making an unlikely star out of a New Orleans caregiver who posts her own videos under the name Princess Shaw.
Courtesy of TIFF
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With 289 features playing at this year’s TIFF, picking favorites can be impossible. But here are some standouts on TheWrap’s to-do list
With 289 features playing at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, picking favorites can be impossible. But here are some on TheWrap's to-do list