Where to Invade Next

Where to Invade Next
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael Moore
Produced by	Carl Deal Tia Lessin Michael Moore
Narrated by	Michael Moore
Cinematography	Richard Rowley Jayme Roy
Edited by	Pablo Proenza Todd Woody Richman Tyler H. Walk
Production companies	Dog Eat Dog Films IMG Films
Distributed by	Unnamed company (Tom Quinn, Jason Janego and Tim League)[1]
Release dates	September 10, 2015 (2015-09-10) (TIFF) December 23, 2015 (2015-12-23) (United States)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English Arabic Finnish French German Italian Norwegian Portuguese
Box office	$4.6 million[2][3]

Where to Invade Next is a 2015 American documentary film written and directed by Michael Moore.^[4][5] The film, in the style of a travelogue, has Moore spending time in countries such as Italy, France, Finland, Tunisia, Slovenia, and Portugal where he experiences those countries' alternative methods of dealing with social and economic ills experienced in the United States.^[6]

Moore's first film in six years, Where to Invade Next opened on December 23, 2015, in the United States and Canada,^[7] in a limited run for one week only in a Los Angeles and New York City theater to qualify for the Oscars. It re-opened on February 12, 2016, across 308 screens.

Synopsis

Film review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes describes the film as "an expansive, rib-tickling, and subversive comedy in which Moore, playing the role of 'invader,' visits a host of nations to learn how the U.S. could improve its own prospects".^[8] The nations he visits are Italy, France, Finland, Slovenia, Germany, Portugal, Norway, Tunisia, and Iceland; respectively, the subjects covered are worker benefits, school lunches, early education, college education, worker inclusion, decriminalized drugs, low recidivism, women's health care, and women inclusion. These countries and supporting facts are listed on the film's website.^[9]

The countries and topics in order of appearance:

• In Italy: labor rights and workers' well-being – paid holiday, paid honeymoon, thirteenth salary, two-hour lunch breaks, paid parental leave, speaking with the executives of Lardini and Claudio Domenicali, the CEO of Ducati
• In France: school meals and sex education
• In Finland: education policy (almost no homework, no standardized testing), speaking with Krista Kiuru, the Finnish Minister of Education
• In Slovenia: debt-free/tuition-free higher education, speaking with Ivan Svetlik, University of Ljubljana's rector, and Borut Pahor, the President of Slovenia
• In Germany: labor rights and work–life balance, visiting pencil manufacturer Faber-Castell, and the value of honest, frank national history education particularly as it relates to Nazi Germany
• In Portugal: May Day, drug policy of Portugal, and the abolition of the death penalty
• In Norway: humane prison system, visiting the minimum-security Bastøy Prison and maximum-security Halden Prison, and Norway's response to the 2011 Utøya attacks
• In Tunisia: women's rights, including reproductive health, access to abortion and their role in the Tunisian Revolution and the drafting of the Tunisian Constitution of 2014
• In Iceland: women in power, speaking with Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, the world's first democratically elected female president; the Best Party with Jón Gnarr being elected Mayor of Reykjavík City; the 2008–11 Icelandic financial crisis and the criminal investigation and prosecution of bankers, with special prosecutor Ólafur Hauksson
• The fall of the Berlin Wall

Moore points out at the end that many of these ideas actually originated in the U.S., such as the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, abolition of the death penalty, the struggle for the eight-hour day and the May Day holiday, the Equal Rights Movement for women, prosecution of financial fraud during the savings and loan crisis, etc.

Production

According to Moore, the film was produced in secret.^[4] It was shot with a small crew and production took place on three continents.^[5]

Release

Where to Invade Next premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and had its American premiere at the 2015 New York Film Festival on October 2, 2015.^[10]

The film was released on December 23, 2015, in New York and Los Angeles by a distribution label formed by Radius-TWC co-founders Tom Quinn and Jason Janego and Alamo Drafthouse Cinema founder Tim League^[7] in order to qualify for the 88th Academy Awards. It then re-opened on February 12, 2016 across 308 screens.^[11] The agency William Morris Endeavor is currently looking for an international distributor.^[12]

Moore had been busy during activities promoting the film and during election work and being in Flint, Michigan, which is suffering from lead contaminating its water. He got pneumonia, was briefly in the intensive care unit of a New York City hospital, and eventually recovered enough to prepare for release; however, his activities leading up to the film's wide release had to be cancelled so he could get adequate rest.^[13]

On April 12, 2016, Moore announced that the film would not be licensed to theaters in North Carolina due to the state's anti-LGBT legislation.^[14][15]

Reception

The film received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 78% of 169 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's consensus states: "Where to Invade Next finds documentarian Michael Moore approaching progressive politics with renewed — albeit unabashedly one-sided — vigor".^[16] On Metacritic, the film holds a 63/100 rating, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[17] On December 1, the film was selected as one of 15 shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature^[18] but was not ultimately nominated.

References

External links

• Official website
• Where to Invade Next at the Internet Movie Database
• Where to Invade Next at Box Office Mojo
• Where to Invade Next at Rotten Tomatoes
• Where to Invade Next at Metacritic