Judging from the title of the movie, "Where's Next" seems to point directly to the war on terror that Mike Moore is most passionate about, but when we see that this old, hobbled fat man is still obsessed with paid vacations, school lunches, As he pursues the education system, drug legalization, recidivism rates, and equal political rights for men and women, once again, he appears to be targeting America's troubled society.
Only this time, he did not simply compare the phenomenon he was criticizing with neighboring countries such as Canada and Cuba as in his previous works. In "Where to Invade Next", he visited almost half of the world. From Finland, where living standards are second to none in the world, to Slovenia, whose names are often confused, from Iceland, the least densely populated in Europe, to Tunisia, the northernmost tip of the African continent. Once again, Mike Moore uses what he does best—unique sense of humour, imaginative editing, and ironic soundtracks—to make America and "the rest of the world" stark, extremely contrasting contrast.
In the era of consumerism and the explosion of the Internet, under the influence of the so-called "postmodernist concept", the traditional barriers between feature films, documentaries, cartoons, and even music videos and TV news have long been broken. All media and elements such as pop music, advertisements, surveillance footage, and video materials can be collaged and used at will. Mike Moore, who has never had formal film training, knows this very well, and he is best at and happy to present his point of view in an entertaining and light-hearted way, even if it is sometimes (and most of the time) quite subjective of. His criticism of various problems in American society is not based on abstract ideas and structures such as populism or even Marxism, but more from the life experience of being born in a working-class family.
But this does not prevent Mike Moore's films from winning both word of mouth and the market, as he himself said: "For those of us who come from the working class, you will never be able to hear our voices and see our art. , because we don’t usually make movies and we don’t own the media. So I feel honored to be valued in an entertainment industry that wasn’t built for us.”
And whether it's Mike Moore himself or his films, there's never been a shortage of opponents. In "Where to Invade Next", although he continued to reveal the bitter and sharp social reality with ease, mechanism but not entertainment, but compared with previous works, this time he seems to have greedily aimed at too many targets, but Without being able to recreate events and climaxes in the way he was good at, we planted star-spangled flags as he traveled the world without getting the final argument we've been waiting for.
But we seem to be able to explain it in his own words: "Everyone has to be politically active. If we don't get involved in politics, the democratic system will die." Controversial and entertaining ways make people think, and even actively taking action is no longer an option, but a kind of introspection and instinct to pursue democracy.
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