Michael Moore’s newest film Capitalism: A Love Story was widely released to the public almost two months ago. But seeing as the film decries corporate greed in all its forms, I thought it’d be appropriate to wait until it finally premiered at the local indie theatre so I could save 20 bucks ($10 on the ticket price and $10 more on the popcorn).

The film is a little more scatterbrained than your regular Michael Moore fare. At heart, Moore’s focus is on the current economic crises, but the movie itself is really just a collection of various stories about how rich people have screwed over poor people. There’s the privately owned juvenile detention centre whose overseers paid judges to stock it full of wrongfully convicted tenants; there’s the drawling working man who’s forced off his land by a bank; there’s a segment on airline pilots and the unlivable wages they’re paid; and, of course, an update on Moore’s hometown of Flint, Michigan and the big, mismanaged company that made it one of the worst places in America.

Finally, towards the end, Moore sets his sights on the recovery stimulus money that was paid to numerous Wall Street firms, many of whom helped cause the economic chaos in the first place. His big offensive consists of him attempting to enter offices to reclaim the money and, surprise surprise, getting turned away at the door by tight-lipped security guards. It’s old shtick, and not nearly as effective as it was in Roger & Me way back in 1989.

Obviously, there is a lot of frustration in and behind Capitalism: A Love Story, but the best bits are the ones that feature a glimmer of hope. Moore includes various scenes of average Americans fighting back against big business, such as a successful sit-down strike that meets with public approval, or a repossessed house being reclaimed by a neighbourhood group. The group promptly reinstalls the ousted family and tells the man from the bank where to shove it.

One issue I have with many Michael Moore films is that he opens himself up to become an easy target to detractors. The issues he covers in his films are important ones, but they often get overclouded in media discourse by, say, an instance of underhanded journalism.

My beef with Capitalism lies right in the title: his use of the word Capitalism. Moore uses the term as a catch-all for corporate greed and underhanded business techniques, instead of the complex political and economic theory that it is. Moore uses Capitalism as his antagonist, and hurls all barbs in its general direction. The problem is that it is very difficult to wage war on an “ism”.

Remember Religulous? Bill Maher’s docu-comedy attacking religion? His issue mostly revolved around radical fundamentalism, but by attacking religion as a whole, he lumps the bad in with the good, thereby marring his argument.

The same goes for Moore. By attempting to present an easy target for blame to Americans with little-to-no knowledge of how the economic system works, he dilutes his point, which seems to be the need for governmental controls on the free market system, and makes it an argument between isms. Those arguments generally go nowhere.

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Questions? Comments? Email Chet Greason at popcornucopia@gmail.com.