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Michael Moore began his film career with a passion for investigation and a sense of spectacle. His first feature film of 1989, "Roger & Me", used Mr. Moore's famous populist hook, in his character Everyman, pursuing Roger B. Smith, then director of General Motors, to confront him at the same time. abandonment of the company. from the hometown of Mr. Moore, Flint, Mich.
In his new documentary, "Fahrenheit 11/9", Mr. Moore, not only intact, but also with a larger production budget, fills a tanker truck with the same supply as Flint residents for drinking and wash.
This water is notoriously polluted by lead (among other toxins), in a scandal that has lasted for years and has not yet reached a satisfactory conclusion. ("No terrorist organization has figured out how to poison an entire American city," said Moore in voiceover. "It took the Michigan Republican Party to get there.") He drives the truck home of the largest powerful Republican in Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder, and sprinkles his lawn with her.
For Moore, the situation in Flint is a microcosm of the catastrophe he sees President Trump impose on this country.
The film begins with an election in 2016 "How did this happen?", Adding that the snapshot news cycle followed by the instantaneous reaction of the Internet diluted the immediacy of the precise cinematic narrative of Mr. Moore – that was a lot of things heard and seen before.
But Moore recognizes an affinity he shares with the president – also a showman. It is therefore in an almost unique position to shame the viewer with a frank perspective on how Mr. Trump used his extrovert side to make citizens complacent about the less savory aspects of his character.
Mr. Trump has "always committed his crimes in plain sight," says Moore in the film. He refers to the accounts challenging his business practices and highlighting his expressions of sectarianism. And yet, while Mr. Trump starred in "The Apprentice," Moore continues, "no one has written to NBC to demand the removal of a declared racist" from his airwaves.
This moment has shook me. As a lifetime New Yorker, I have long been someone who has ignored Trump's words and actions for decades, believing it was just a bad joke that the city was inflicting on the city. rest of the world.
And here we are.
"Fahrenheit 11/9" has a structure of peaks and valleys. There is an abundance of material "America is screwed". Articles on the Flint Water Scandal are maddening. The thredody "it was stolen" for Bernie Sanders is considerably less convincing, but it raises valuable points.
Relief arrives with scenes "but there is hope!" Who portray insurgent Democrats as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and young activists, like Emma González and David Hogg, survivors of the Parkland School. They are Mr. Moore's idea of The Solution. The elites of the Democratic Party like Bill and Hillary Clinton and this newspaper, which Moore considers to be an incarnation of centrism relentlessly, are part of the problem.
The version of the film I saw did not have a final credits, and according to a publicist during the screening, Mr. Moore continues to tinker with the film. The planned break for me and other critics ended with an artificial but emotionally effective twist that challenges the viewer to call it cheap. But the more I flirted with the challenge, the more plausible the dramatic speculations of Mr. Moore were. He still has it in the showroom.
Fahrenheit 11/9
Noted R for the language and an enveloping aura of existential dread. Duration: 2 hours 6 minutes.
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