In evaluating his least favorite films of 2015, Variety film critic Peter Debruge slammed leftwing filmmaker Michael Moore’s latest project as “an embarrassment to America.”
As part of the entertainment industry outlet’s year-end assessment of the year’s most “egregious cinematic stinkers,” Debruge saved his ire for Moore’s Where to Invade Next as his worst pick for the year.
“Michael Moore’s latest editorial cartoon of a documentary is as sloppy as its author’s appearance (easily twice his ‘Bowling for Columbine’ heft),” writes the critic.
He adds:
Unlike his earlier, urgent wake-up-call docs, “Where to Invade Next” cherry-picks aspects in which other countries can be made to appear more progressive than the States, while conveniently overlooking the limitations of each grass-is-greener locale. At the base, it’s a fine idea, implying the humility to ask what we can learn from others, though Moore is a boorish ambassador at best, and his disingenuous approach undermines his own argument.
In the film, Moore travels around the world to observe various countries that have adapted liberal social and economic ideas that he feels the United States should adopt.
Where to Invade Next will make its theatrical debut in February.
Breitbart’s John Nolte commented on Moore’s declining relevance in his assessment of the leftwing filmmaker’s recent behavior ahead of the film’s release.
“You can only get so fat, so old and so wealthy before you lose your edge, lose the creative drive and hunger that birthed a serially-dishonest but nonetheless brilliant career,” wrote Nolte.
In mid-December, Moore stood outside Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s New York office holding a sign that read “We Are All Muslim.” A week before, Moore invited his Facebook followers to report Trump for “hate speech” in an effort to have him banned from the social media service.
Nolte added in his assessment: “And now, with Donald Trump closing in on the Republican nomination and ISIS effectively rampaging worldwide, Moore’s upcoming ‘Where To Invade Next’ (February 12) is already in trouble.”
Read the rest of the Variety critics’ least favorite films of 2015 here.