It’s been six years since Michael Moore, documentary filmmaker of the award-winning “Fahrenheit 9/11,” has released a film. His last film, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” analyzed the post-9/11 United States and how the Bush administration used the event to justify the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. Although the film was the highest-grossing documentary of all time, it was regarded as highly controversial, resulting in Moore receiving several death threats.
His new film, “Where to Invade Next,” coming out on December 23, 2016, explores various issues in the U.S., such as student loan debt, income inequality, and obesity in high schools. In the film, Moore invades countries such as Finland, France, and Italy, analyzing the methods these countries use to tackle socio-economic problems. He then travels back to the U.S. to try to apply such methods, such as France’s school lunches and Finland’s successful, homework-free education system.
With Facebook and Twitter taking over the internet by storm, real world issues, as expressed in Moore’s new film, are making it to the front of peoples’ timelines and Twitter feeds. Our new digital generation has allowed the world to become well aware of the issues we face as a global community.
Where to Invade Next is cleverly marketed on social media on Moore’s Facebook page. One example post, which is linked to Moore’s website, is titled “High School Students: Here’s How to Sneak In to My ‘R’-Rated Movie They Don’t Want You to See” and it targets underage teens as a viewing audience for the film. As a result of Moore’s marketing on Facebook and other social media sites such as Twitter, the once uninformed population of the world is able to understand the severity of the issues facing the United States as well as the socio-economic innovations abroad. With this explosion of news, documentaries now have a place in the heart of the well-informed citizen who wants to further understand the challenges we face as a globalized world.
Critics are already raving about the film. Stephen Holden of The New York Times has said, “Impassioned, Mr. Moore’s most far-reaching film.” Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly has said, “Funny, but also serious as a heart attack.” Moore’s film looks promising in the sense that it could be a wake-up call for the U.S., but whether or not Moore’s film will cause the U.S. to implement some necessary changes is uncertain as of yet.
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