Michael Moore's latest documentary looks at the threats posed by the rise of Trump and the hard right faction in US politics, and the long term damage that is doing both to democracy and to the lives of many of the people of the country. Starting with the disbelief that a ridiculous reality TV star could ever become the most powerful man in the world he shows why Trump found himself taking on the presidential race and how he, and others, made him become accepted as a real contender. Corruption, greed, petulance and narcissism are all there, but more worryingly so too is a disdain for human rights.
Moore switches between the macro view at federal level down to some more local issues that highlight how cancerous these sort of politics are to democracy at all levels. In Michigan a governor who runs the state like a business refuses to address the poisons in the water supply to the city of Flint where the levels of lead in children shoot up. That it's a majority black city looks to be a factor in his refusal to act. It takes grassroots activism and trade unions to get anything done.
After the Parkland school shooting many of the survivors took up the cause of gun control and stood up against the Trump rhetoric, in a way their elders were failing to do. It might not have achieved much in reality, but Moore sees them, and the Flint activists as beacons of hope for the future.
And Moore doesn't spare the Democrats in his critique, looking at the corruption of the Clintons, and how Obama failed the people of Flint in their fight for justice. These are the kind of actions that disenchant voters from the political process, opening the way to populists who promise the earth. Through Moore's eyes they emerge almost as culpable as the real villains.
But the focus always returns to Trump. Disdaining any accusations of Godwinism Moore lays out the clear similarities and parallels between Trumpism and Germany of the thirties, with chilling results. As is the list of fellow sexual predators the POTUS has associated with, not forgetting the shadowy creepiness of Steve Bannon.
If at times the editing feels a bit piecemeal it's not enough to prevent this from being a film that needs to be widely viewed as a work of importance for our times. Two hours long, it never fails to keep your attention, and in typical Moore style mixes scenes to make the blood boil with moments of black humour. Unmissable.
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