Variety Calls ‘Capitalism’ One of Moore’s Best Films

Writing for Variety, Leslie Felperin:

By returning to his roots, professional gadfly Michael Moore turns in one of his best films with “Capitalism: A Love Story.” Pic‚Äôs target is less capitalism qua capitalism than the banking industry, which Moore skewers ruthlessly, explaining last year‚Äôs economic meltdown in terms a sixth-grader could understand. That said, there‚Äôs still plenty here to annoy right-wingers, as well as those who, however much they agree with Moore‚Äôs politics, just can‚Äôt stomach his oversimplification, on-the-nose sentimentality and goofball japery. Whether “Capitalism” matches “Fahrenheit 9/11″ or underperforms like Sicko” will depend on how much workers of the world are ready to unite behind the message.

This film will open at a time when Americans are most sharply divided. Might I say with full disclosure as a liberal that I have never seen such a radical right emerge in such a public forum as I’ve seen lately on CNN with the crazies coming out of the woodwork to attack Obama and anything he tries to do, but especially on the subject of health care, of course. To that degree, Moore’s film could prove pivotal both as fodder for right-wingers frothing at the mouth about “the evils of socialism” and for people who are kind of sick of the way the corporations have a choke hold on our nation.¬†

Guardian after the cut.

And the Guardian’s Xan Brooks says:

Michael Moore’s latest documentary drew tumultuous applause at theVenice film festival¬†today, suggesting that the veteran tub-thumper has lost none of his power to whip up a response. If the film finally lacks the clean, hard punch provided by the record-breaking Fahrenheit 9/11, that can only be because the crime scene is so vast and the culprits so numerous.

Undeterred, Moore jabs his finger at everyone from Reagan to Bush Jr, Hank Paulson to Alan Greenspan. He drags the viewer through a thicket of insurance scams, sub-prime bubbles and derivative trading so wilfully obfuscatory that even the experts can’t explain how it works.

The big villain, of course, is capitalism itself, which the film paints as a wily old philanderer intent on lining the pockets of the few at the expense of the many. America, enthuses a leaked Citibank report, is now a modern-day “plutonomy” where the top 1% of the population control 95% of the wealth. Does Barack Obama’s election spell an end to all this? The director has his doubts, pointing out that Goldman Sachs ‚Äì depicted here as the principal agent of wickedness ‚Äì was the largest private contributor to the Obama campaign.