It’s been 20 years since Michael Moore made “Roger & Me,” about the damage General Motors had done to his hometown of Flint, Mich., and, by extension, the American auto worker. The title came from the filmmaker’s persistent attempts to see GM’s CEO at the time, Roger Smith.
“Capitalism: A Love Story” mentions the anniversary of “Roger & Me” more than once. And Flint figures (rightly so) in this tale of economic mendacity and decay. Still, an alternative title for his least illuminating film might simply be “Me.”
tagdocumentary
“Capitalism” opens with surveillance footage of bank robberies with Iggy Pop’s “Louie Louie II” playing. It’s clever. Because the movie is about bank robbing.
The usual flourishes are employed to lesser effect. There are industrial films and ads from the 1950s espousing the rightness of capitalism and the free market. There’s the video of a cat flushing a toilet. He even uses “O Fortuna” from the Carmina Burana, a piece of music that has been used so much to strike fear in listeners’ hearts that Jon Stewart joked about its scare-tactic overuse. Moore does not use the ominous music with irony.
There are also the usual suspects. George W. Bush makes more than a cameo appearance.
Working folk who’ve had their hearts broken are sympathetic interviewees: a widow whose husband’s company took a million-dollar insurance policy out on her husband. A grieving husband and his children try to understand how Wal-Mart was allowed to make money off the young wife and mother’s tragic death.
Even so, the film focuses on Moore. His pseudo-analysis of capitalism is a string theory of everything, with Moore as the unifying principle.
His presence is the glue to shoddily constructed arguments. His fairy-tale intonations are meant to nudge us toward his conclusions.
This has been a problem for a while now. Not much seems discovered in his films.
Curiosity is not the point. Thinking for ourselves isn’t either. His answers are enough.
Moore calls on the priest who married him and his wife to weigh in on the wages of capitalism. It is an odd attempt to challenge the religious right’s seeming embrace of wealth.
A segment about judicial misconduct in Pennsylvania helps articulate just how poorly constructed his argument can be.
The film relates the chilling story of a judge sending kids to a juvenile center for kickbacks as a parable about capitalism.
But this story turns on another C-word: corruption. Moore would have us believe capitalism is the root of all corruption.
Arguing for the other side, the director enlists Stephen Moore, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal. Performing his role dutifully, he says smug things about the free-market superiority of democracy.
There is a different movie bubbling beneath “Capitalism: A Love Story.” Though not necessarily better, it would be more honest. It may be high time the filmmaker forgoes these filmed columns and commits to a memoir.
Because how a curious son of blue- collar folk became this self-involved blowhard with a bullhorn barking outside the offices of AIG and Morgan Stanley might make an intriguing — if cautionary — tale.
For those interested in nonfiction features that do the actual work of trying to understand economics, try “I.O.U.S.A,” which focuses on deficits and debt; and “American Casino,” which actually has someone explain credit-default swaps, those exotic financial instruments that led to the near collapse of the global economy. Here, it’s just fodder for a gee-whiz joke.
In an interview included in the thin production notes for “Capitalism: A Love Story,” Moore is asked, “What do you hope audiences take away from this movie?
“Popcorn and pitchforks,” he answers. This is the problem, of course. The filmmaker seems all too pleased to entertain and blame.
“CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY.”
R for language. 2 hours, 7 minutes. Written and directed by Michael Moore; photography by Daniel Marracino and Jayme Roy; featuring Michael Moore. Opens today at area theaters.
