Fahrenheit 11/9

More striking to me than the the film itself is its incredibly bi-modal retribution reveiwer scores, ALMOST ALL.NEARLY 1 or 2 OR 10 or 9. This not only strikingly illustrates the ideological/political character of user responses, but the limitations of mean scores as statistical summaries of viewer favor or disfavor. In this case no use, except as a benchmark for the polarized responses.

As for the film itself, think 11/9 is probably the best film of one of our most skilled cinemantic essayist. It's free of Moore's occasional gaffes (e.g. the cruel interrogation of Charlton Heston in Moore's critique of US gun use, the 9/11 shot of joyous Iraqies in Baghdad cafes just prior to Bush-II's military intervention into Iraq). It's polemical but conscientious, if not unselective, in its use of facts. It's a powerful piece of rhetoric, like say the Gettysburg Address or Reagan's "tear down that wall" speech.

This should be required viewing in school. Yes, of course Michael Moore uses all the tricks filmmakers use to tell a story in an engaging manner, but anyone who comes to this with an open mind will see that at its core there is a message that is deeply disturbing about our politicians. I take my hat off to all the brave people, from the left or right, who are prepared to challenge the "old boy" power structures that corrupt politics.

You may love or hate Michael Moore's politics, but one thing is clear and that is that he makes good, entertaining documentaries. I guarantee that the vast majority of one star reviewers have not seen this movie. If you are firmly in Trumps party and think he's doing a "wonderful" job, yeah you probably won't like it. If you're anyone else definitely check it out.

The beginning is a little painful reliving election night. From there the film disperses into all kinds of political events, all illustrating that it is up to the people to take control back. This movie is not at all focused on Trump though he does take him on. There is a particularly cringe inducing part where he focuses on his bizarre relationship with his daughter. Moore also disses the DNC and even Obama (who seems to have really deserved it in this case). This isn't really a spoiler..just putting it out there so you know that Moore is no Democratic stooge. He's for the people and I always find it amazing that there are tons of working class Republicans who HATE him and yet would benefit greatly if his ideas were implemented.

To sum up, the movie is entertaining, very informative and above all very motivating! Loved it.

For better or worse, this feels like the final thesis statement for everything Moore has been trying to say for the past 15 years...though it certainly won't be. A provocateur that rides the line between downright entertaining & annoyingly self-righteous, this is maybe his best movie since Bowling for Columbine. Not because of the Trump stuff, which we're all well aware of, but the smaller, more bipartisan stuff like the Flint water crisis & the tongue-in-cheek Hitler segment.

The disappointment is to observe more people packing across the hall to see transformers rather than to watch this thought-provoking and well crafted documentary. If Americans are fatigued on our state of politics and checking out on Trump already.... we're in deep trouble!