Short Takes: Where to Invade Next

When Michael Moore’s new documentary is titled Where To Invade Next, you can be sure to expect another exposé on America’s failed and destructive foreign policy. But his hilarious follow-up to Capitalism: A Love Story instead approvingly dishes out some social policies he’d like the U.S. to emulate. Moore crosses the pond to “invade” nine European countries and steal neither their oil nor their land, but rather good ideas such as Italy’s paid vacations and maternity leave, Portugal’s drug decriminalization policy, and Slovenia’s free college tuition. By building a comprehensive and compelling case against America’s most defective domestic policies, Moore’s title transforms from a cynical query into a simple statement. What makes the film ironic is that all these ideas originated in the United States, in the years before it fell under the influence of neoconservatism.