''Where to Invade Next'' is a 2015 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

written and directed by

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism. Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ' ...

. The film, in the style of a

travelogue Travelogue may refer to: Genres * Travel literature, a record of the experiences of an author travelling * Travel documentary A travel documentary is a documentary film, television program, or online series that describes travel in general or t ...

, has Moore spending time in countries such as

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

where he experiences those countries' alternative methods of dealing with social and economic ills experienced in the United States. Moore's first film in six years, ''Where to Invade Next'' opened on December 23, 2015, in the United States and Canada, in a limited run for one week only in a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

theater to qualify for the

Oscars The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

. It re-opened on February 12, 2016, across 308 screens. The film received generally positive reviews from critics.

Synopsis

In the film, Moore visits a number of countries and examines aspects of their social policies that he suggests the United States could adopt. He visits Italy, France, Finland, Slovenia, Germany, Portugal, Norway, Tunisia, and Iceland; respectively, the subjects covered are worker benefits, school lunches, early education, college education, worker inclusion, decriminalized drugs, low recidivism, women's health care, and women's inclusion and leadership role in society. These countries and supporting facts are listed on the film's website. The countries and topics in order of appearance: * In

labor rights Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influen ...

and workers' well-being – paid holiday, paid honeymoon,

thirteenth salary A thirteenth salary, or end-of-year bonus, is an extra payment given to employees at the end of December. Although the amount of the payment depends on a number of factors, it usually matches an employee's monthly salary and can be paid in o ...

, two-hour lunch breaks, paid

parental leave Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, Paternity (law), paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" an ...

, speaking with the executives of

Lardini Lardini Srl is an Italian fashion house founded in 1978 by then 18-year-old Luigi Lardini, his 21-year-old brother Andrea Lardini and 19-year-old sister Lorena Lardini. History The company was founded by the Lardini family in 1978 in Filottrano ...

and Claudio Domenicali, the CEO of

Ducati Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. () is the motorcycle-manufacturing division of Italian company Ducati, headquartered in Bologna, Italy. The company is directly owned by Italian automotive manufacturer Lamborghini, whose German parent company is Au ...

* In

school meal A school meal or school lunch (also known as hot lunch, a school dinner, or school breakfast) is a meal provided to students and sometimes teachers at a school, typically in the middle or beginning of the school day. Countries around the world ...

s and

sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual acti ...

* In

education policy Education policy consists of the principles and policy decisions that influence the field of education, as well as the collection of laws and rules that govern the operation of education systems. Education governance may be shared between the local ...

(almost no

homework Homework is a set of tasks assigned to students by their teachers to be completed outside the classroom. Common homework assignments may include required reading, a writing or typing project, Exercise (mathematics), mathematical exercises to b ...

, no

standardized test A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a predete ...

ing), speaking with

Krista Kiuru Krista Katriina Kiuru (born 5 August 1974) is a Finnish politician. She served as Minister of Housing and Communications and Minister of Education and Communications in Jyrki Katainen's and Alexander Stubb's cabinets. Since June 2019, she has ser ...

, the Finnish Minister of Education. Moore notes that music and poetry have been eliminated in the American

K-12 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993, well known worldwide mainly for its heavyweight division fights and Grand Prix tournaments. In January 2012, K-1 Global Holdings Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong, acquired ...

education system. * In

: debt-free/tuition-free higher

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

, speaking with ,

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana ( sl, Univerza v Ljubljani, , la, Universitas Labacensis), often referred to as UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 39,000 enrolled students. History Beginnings Although certain ...

's rector, and

Borut Pahor Borut Pahor (; born 2 November 1963) is a Slovenian politician who served as President of Slovenia from 2012 to 2022. He previously served as Prime Minister of Slovenia from November 2008 to February 2012. A longtime member and former presid ...

, the

President of Slovenia The president of Slovenia, officially the president of the Republic of Slovenia ( sl, Predsednik Republike Slovenije), is the head of state of the Republic of Slovenia. The position was established on 23 December 1991 when the National Assembly (S ...

. The University of Ljubljana teaches at least 100 courses in English. * In

: labor rights,

co-determination In corporate governance, codetermination (also "copartnership" or "worker participation") is a practice where workers of an enterprise have the right to vote for representatives on the board of directors in a company. It also refers to staff having ...

and

work–life balance Work may refer to: * Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community ** Manual labour, physical work done by humans ** House work, housework, or homemaking ** Working animal, an animal tr ...

, visiting pencil manufacturer

Faber-Castell Faber-Castell AG is a manufacturer of pens, pencils, other office supplies (e.g., staplers, slide rules, erasers, rulers)Faber-Castell InternationalOffice Products and art supplies,Faber-Castell InternationalProducts for FineArts and FineWriting ...

, and the value of honest, frank

national history Historiography is the study of how history is written. One pervasive influence upon the writing of history has been nationalism, a set of beliefs about political legitimacy and cultural identity. Nationalism has provided a significant framework ...

education, particularly as it relates to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

* In

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. T ...

drug policy of Portugal The drug policy of Portugal, informally called the "drug strategy", was put in place in 2000, and came into effect in July 2001. Its purpose was to reduce the number of new HIV/ AIDS cases in the country, as it was estimated around half of new c ...

, universal health care, and the abolition of the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

* In

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

: humane

prison system A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correcti ...

, visiting the minimum-security Bastøy Prison and maximum-security

Halden Prison Halden Prison ( no, Halden fengsel) is a maximum-security prison in Halden, Norway. It has three main units and has no conventional security devices. The second-largest prison in Norway, it was established in 2010 with a focus on rehabilitation; ...

, and Norway's response to the 2011 Utøya attacks * In

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

, including

reproductive health Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a field of research, healthcare, and social activism that explores the health of an individual's reproductive system and sexual wellbeing during all stages of their life. The term can also be further de ...

, access to

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

and their role in the

Tunisian Revolution The Tunisian Revolution, also called the Jasmine Revolution, was an intensive 28-day campaign of civil resistance. It included a series of street demonstrations which took place in Tunisia, and led to the ousting of longtime president Zine El ...

and the drafting of the

Tunisian Constitution of 2014 The Tunisian Constitution of 2014 ( ar, 2014 دستور تونس) was adopted on 26 January 2014 by the Constituent Assembly elected on 23 October 2011 in the wake of Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution that overthrew President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ...

Rached Ghannouchi Rached Ghannouchi ( ar, راشد الغنوشي, Rāshid al-Ghannūshī; born 22 June 1941), also spelled Rachid al-Ghannouchi or Rached el-Ghannouchi, is a Tunisian politician, the co-founder of the Ennahdha Party and serving as its intellec ...

disapproves of compulsory hijab, saying, "The state should not tell women how to dress, or interfere in their lives." * In

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

: women in power, speaking with

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (; born 15 April 1930) is an Icelandic politician who served as the fourth president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996. She was the world's first woman who was democratically elected as president. With a presidency of exactl ...

, the world's first democratically elected female president; the

Best Party The Best Party ( is, Besti flokkurinn) was an Icelandic political party founded by Jón Gnarr on 16 November 2009. The party ran in the 2010 city council election in Reykjavík and won a plurality on the Reykjavík City Council, receiving 34.7% ...

with

Jón Gnarr Jón Gnarr (; born 2 January 1967)This is an Icelandic name. ''Kristinsson'' is the patronymic, but he is properly referred to as ''Jón Gnarr'' as he had it legally removed. is an Icelandic actor, comedian, and politician who served as the Ma ...

being elected

Mayor of Reykjavík The post of Mayor of Reykjavík ( is, Borgarstjóri Reykjavíkur) was created in 1907 and advertised in 1908. Páll Einarsson and Knud Zimsen applied for the job and Páll got the position for a period of six years, at the end of which he did not w ...

; the 2008–11 Icelandic financial crisis and the criminal investigation and prosecution of bankers, with special prosecutor * The

fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of eve ...

Moore points out at the end that many of these ideas actually originated in the U.S., such as the constitutional ban on

cruel and unusual punishment Cruel and unusual punishment is a phrase in common law describing punishment that is considered unacceptable due to the suffering, pain, or humiliation it inflicts on the person subjected to the sanction. The precise definition varies by jurisd ...

, abolition of the death penalty, the struggle for the

eight-hour day The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses. An eight-hour work day has its origins in the 16 ...

and the

holiday, the Equal Rights Movement for women, and prosecution of financial fraud during the savings and loan crisis.

Production

According to Moore, the film was produced in secret. It was shot with a small crew and production took place on three continents.

Release

''Where to Invade Next'' premiered at the

2015 Toronto International Film Festival The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 10 to 20 September 2015. On 28 July 2015 the first wave of films to be screened at the Festival was announced. Jean-Marc Vallée's ''Demolition'' starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naom ...

(TIFF) and had its American premiere at the 2015 New York Film Festival on October 2, 2015. At the TIFF, Moore sought a distributor, with Moore " ndicatingthat whoever winds up taking the film, it will be positioned for Oscar consideration. As a premiere, it was presented during the TIFF's Special Presentations section. The film was released on December 23, 2015, in New York and Los Angeles by a distribution label formed by

Radius-TWC The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob Weinstein, Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North ...

co-founders Tom Quinn and Jason Janego and

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is an American cinema chain founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas, which is famous for serving dinner and drinks during the movie, as well as its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain proper cinema-going etiq ...

founder

Tim League Tim League is an American entrepreneur and film producer based in Austin, Texas. He is the founder of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain and the founder of the film distribution company Drafthouse Films, where League has produced films includi ...

in order to qualify for the

88th Academy Awards The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015 and took place on February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, 5:30 p.m. PST. Du ...

. It then re-opened on February 12, 2016 across 308 screens. The agency

William Morris Endeavor Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. (formerly known as William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, WME or WME-IMG) is an American holding company for talent and media agencies with its primary offices in Beverly Hills, California, United States. The compa ...

is currently looking for an international distributor. Moore had been busy during activities promoting the film and during election work and being in

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...

, which is suffering from lead contaminating its water. He got pneumonia, was briefly in the

intensive care unit 220px, Intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensiv ...

of a New York City hospital, and eventually recovered enough to prepare for release; however, his activities leading up to the film's wide release had to be cancelled so he could get adequate rest. On April 12, 2016, Moore announced that the film would not be licensed to theaters in North Carolina out of political opposition to the state's

Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act The Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, commonly known as House Bill 2 or HB2, was a North Carolina statute passed in March 2016 and signed into law by Governor Pat McCrory. The bill amended state law to preempt any anti-discrimination o ...

Reception

The film received positive reviews from critics, including Noel Murray, who wrote:

With ''Where To Invade Next'', though, Moore has made his best film in over a decade, and one that clarifies exactly what his strengths are. If nothing else, watching it helps explain why his clunkier movies (like 2009’s '' Capitalism: A Love Story'') fall so flat.

Review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports that 78% of 169 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's consensus states: "''Where to Invade Next'' finds documentarian Michael Moore approaching progressive politics with renewed—albeit unabashedly one-sided—vigor". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film holds a 63/100 rating, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On December 1, 2015, the film was selected as one of 15 shortlisted for the

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

, but was not ultimately nominated.

References

External links