'Where to Invade Next': EW review

Despite its militaristic title, Michael Moore’s latest blast of cinematic agitprop isn’t about war-happy American foreign policy. It’s far stealthier than that. In his first documentary since 2009’s Capitalism: A Love Story, Michigan’s muckraking merry prankster takes a look at America and wonders aloud how we’ve lost our way. How has the greatest country on earth fallen behind the rest of the world when it comes to happiness, dignity, the way we treat our workers? Moore, as shambling and disheveled as ever, travels the globe (mostly Europe, but also far-flung places like Tunisia) and, with an air of mock astonishment, shows us how much better other countries treat women, families, even prisoners. Moore talks to locals and after hearing how simple their prescriptions for happiness are, he plants a flag to colonize these ideas. Where to Invade Next is so heartfelt and sincere, it’s tempting to say that Moore’s mellowed with age. But beneath its innocent-abroad optimism, the film has a stinging truth that’s hard to ignore. A–