If Michael Moore’s documentaries have proven anything, it’s that people are never going to act on anything they see in a movie. Oh they might get riled up for a little while, as did the group of moviegoers who formed an on the spot healthcare reform mob outside one of the Sicko showings I attended in 2007, but by the time they get home there’s something good on HBO and they’ll soon move on to other things. Moore’s movies, though he clearly seems to think otherwise, are nothing more than entertainment. It’s not any particular failing of Moore’s, he’s simply making hard-hitting documentaries in a world where no normal person really cares about the issues anymore.
Luckily his documentaries, unlike all the others which no one notices in theaters, are also pretty entertaining. They transcend the political documentary genre and a fair amount of people go to them for the same reasons they’ll go see the next crummy movie from Cameron Diaz. His latest, Capitalism: A Love Story sounds as if it promises more of the same. Capitalism: A Love Story debuted this weekend at the Venice Film Festival and the early reviews are rolling in. The consensus seems to be that, yep, it’s a Michael Moore movie… except maybe on an even broader scale. His premise? Capitalism is evil. Most unexpectedly, one of the comparisons that’s come up in many of the reviews I’ve read labels both Moore and his latest film as a throwback to the era of Frank Capra. Is this Michael Moore’s It’s a Wonderful Life? Critics seem to think so.
Here’s a quick look at what reviewers in Venice are saying:
“Capitalism: A Love Story is by turns crude and sentimental, impassioned and invigorating. It posits a simple moral universe inhabited by good little guys and evil big ones, yet the basic thrust of its argument proves hard to resist.” – Xan Brooks, The Guardian [4/5]“Michael Moore’s latest is another rallying cry for the working man, reworking the same themes of all his films from Roger & Me onwards, namely the hypocrisies and injustices of the corporate and political superstructure in the US.” - Mike Goodridge, Screen Daily“Capitalism: A Love Story does not quite measure up to Moore's Sicko in its cumulative power, and it is unlikely to equal Fahrenheit 9/11 in political impact.” - Mary Corliss, Time“Michael Moore is this generation’s Frank Capra. By that token, Capitalism: A Love Story – an artlessly effective slice of rah-rah rhetoric more sincerely idealistic than anything the director has yet put his name to – represents Moore’s It’s a Wonderful Life.” - “He delivers it in such rousing and entertaining fashion that he carries us with him. This may be a documentary but it has the same uplifting, folksy feel as old Frank Capra movies of the 1930s.” - Goeffrey MacNab, Independent.co.uk [3/5]“Building the case for capitalism as an obscene evil was never so easy.” - Deborah Young, THR“By returning to his roots, professional gadfly Michael Moore turns in one of his best films with "Capitalism: A Love Story." Pic’s target is less capitalism qua capitalism than the banking industry, which Moore skewers ruthlessly, explaining last year’s economic meltdown in terms a sixth-grader could understand.” - Leslie Felperin, Variety
