The last thing I wanted to see was Michael Moore make a comedic song and dance out of the death of the world. Capitalism: A Love Story is the most he’s managed to keep his ego at bay (ie: the least he appears in one of his movies) since Fahrenheit 9/11. But Moore squanders his serious points about corporate slavery and economic crisis. Insisting on simplifications—poor equals virtuous, rich equals corrupt—he invites distrust to all but the converted. The threat of corporations becoming government is too heavy a subject for Moore’s lone-spokesman-of-the-working-class crusade. He never digs far enough to propose an alternative to succumbing to the world’s capitalist excess.
Related Stories
The Moore you know
Michael Moore’s name is synonymous with the documentary genre, but there are haters who wish he’d just go away.
This article appears in Oct 1-7, 2009.