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Lumbering Mike Moore takes on the devils of capitalism in his latest documentary, a 'love story' about the beating heart of western democracy. In what has moved from formula to schtick, he dons working class jeans and a baseball cap to outrage, entertain, amuse and sadden in near equal measure. He gets down and earthy with much maligned blue collar workers like you and me. He tackles those white collar criminals who perpetrate atrocities against society while fleshing it out with a few trademark stunts; rolling crime-scene tape around a merchant bank for instance.
His argument is simple enough. Democracy, the cornerstone of Western Civilisation, has been blind-sided by capitalism and its thirst for channelling the wealth of all into the hands of few. 90% of the wealth into 1% of the hands in fact. Leading the charge is Wall Street who, in the past thirty years have not so much dove-tailed their needs into government as taken it over completely. If you align with Moore's argument, the actions of Treasurer Henry Paulson late year amounted to a financial coup-d'état. And it's a powerful argument. Fighting talk.
And in this sense, Capitalism: A Love Story is vintage Mike Moore: a brash, tricky documentary that plays loose with many of the sources he draws upon while editorialising at length on his pet subject: democratic socialism. Not that that's such a bad thing, someone needs to take these devils to task and we can be confident the government won't. Moore may be something of a lone voice, but what a voice it is. Prepare to be suitably scandalised.
// COLIN FRASER
moviereview colin fraser film movie australia review critic flicks