Fahrenheit 11/9: DVD Review
In a case of it's unclear whether the world has got so crazy that it matches Michael Moore's sense of craziness, Fahrenheit 11/9 is an odd film that is wildly missold by its poster image.
With the figure of Donald Trump swinging on the golf course as the White House explodes in the background, you'd be pushed into thinking that the documentary is a takedown of Trump. And rightly so, as Moore's seething anger has been on show for all to see.
But what Moore does with Fahrenheit 11/9 is more to build a case for how America was leading to this already and the dire state of the US political scene, and citizens' landscape.
While drawing some lazy comparisons to Trump as Hitler, the large portion of Moore's latest is more about exposing the continuing devastation of Flint, as initially chronicled in Roger and Me. Returning to the story of how the contaminated water is killing the inhabitants there, Moore tries a stunt as well with the powers that be.
But much like portions of this documentary, it feels wildly off base, as Moore rambles through his own past, through America's disillusionments, and his quest to push back against the current - and past - regimes; even Obama doesn't get off lightly.
If anything, Fahrenheit 11/9 is more a rallying cry for the end of democracy, with a speech at the end intoning "If this is the America we're trying to save, maybe ask yourself why. It didn't need to end up like this - and it still doesn't. Evil is a slow moving organism. We didn't need comfort, we needed action. Sometimes it takes a Donald Trump to wake up and realise."
All in all, Fahrenheit 11/9 suffers from the fact reality is too devastating for Moore's formerly incisive eyes; someone more in control of their critical abilities could have shaped this occasionally overlong piece into something more lean and more damning.
As it is, Fahrenheit 11/9 flounders a little, and merely blows hot air, when perhaps it should seethe with rage.
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