'Fahrenheit 11/9'—Review

Let me just start by saying that I am going to try to keep my political stance out of this review as much as possible. However, it is going to be rather difficult to do so because this movie is a look into the world of Donald Trump's White House. So I don't even know where to begin. I guess I should state that I am a Canadian so although I find myself hanging more towards the left side on certain issues, I couldn't vote in the last election even if I wanted to.

A quick little personal story about the election though. I was in my final year of film school when the election talks were really heating up and all this discussion of racism and sexism heading into the White House was a topic of discussion in almost every class. So I went through a breakup during this semester and to treat myself for recently becoming single, I booked a plane ticket down to Los Angeles... the night after the election. It didn't even cross my mind that those two dates were set. So the night before my trip, Donald Trump was elected to become the 45th President of the United States of America. When I landed in LA, I was welcomed by the LAPD riot patrol telling us to drive around the riot that was happening downtown. Now I have family in the United States that voted for Trump, and family that voted for Clinton. However, If I was American, I would have voted for Clinton because I don't think Trump is the right man for the job, and this movie tries its best to tell its audience that.

Michael Moore has always been a polarizing figure because he always makes movies from a leftist point of view and has no problem showcasing in detail why some people on the right are brain-dead morons. Meaning he puts them into a corner to prove a point. For example, a large portion of this movie dealt with the Flint, Michigan water crisis and how he believes that it was a plot from a Republican Senator to poison a neighborhood with a largely black community. So Michael Moore goes to the State House in an attempt to put the Republican Senator under citizens arrest. When the man in the lobby tells Moore that the Senator is not in the building and that the water in Flint is drinkable, Moore offers the man a glass of water from Flint, Michigan and to no surprise, he refuses the drink. That was one of the more comedic moments of the film because I am agreeing with what Michael Moore is saying, but if it was a right-wing agenda coming after me and they made me look foolish in a documentary, then I don't know if I would suddenly change my mind, or harden my beliefs.

That is my issue with documentaries like this. Both sides have the mindset, "How can they honestly think like this? They are crazy!" meaning that it is going to be very tough to persuade people of an argument. I agreed with almost everything Michael Moore said about how Donald Trump and his rise to power does mirror that of certain fascist dictators in the past, but this movie isn't changing my mind, it's simply streamlining my thoughts. Telling people what they already believe is nice for the audience because it matches their ideals, but who should really be seeing this movie is the people who do agree with Donald Trump and his methods. Therefore, this film will actually have a chance to do what it has set out to do, teach and inform.

But that is the problem with society nowadays, people don't like to be challenged. People like the familiar and don't like venturing out into the unknown. We watch our Marvel movies while eating out at McDonalds and Applebees (Boston Pizza or Red Robin in Canada) and don't like anything really new. What's worse is that although I say this, I'm like this too. Would I venture out of my way to watch a documentary about how Donald Trump is going to save America? Probably not, but I should. I should watch it and watch this movie and form my own opinion.

While Michael Moore has made another entertaining movie about the current state of America, I am extremely grateful to be living in the Great White North. I'll come down for visits for sure, but I am proud to be Canadian. Even more so after watching this movie.