Capitalism: A Love Story 2009

A.O. Scott, At the Movies: Even if you don't agree with the answers that Michael Moore suggests, I think you should see this movie. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: While it's amusing to watch Moore on camera plaster the entrance to the New York Stock Exchange with crime-scene tape, when Moore goes through his customary security-guard harassment in another segment, it's hard not to think: Here we go again. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Like most of his movies, Capitalism is a tragedy disguised as a comedy; it's also an entertainment. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: There are moments in Capitalism when you're reminded of Moore's talent for shrieking truth to power. The rest of the film, however, only proves that his quixotic preachiness can make even a worthy cause feel occasionally bankrupt. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Moore relates a half-century of fraud in singsong narration that makes him seem like Mister Rogers with 200 extra pounds and a Che Guevara T-shirt instead of a cardigan. But what a figure he cuts. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Moore aims to proselytize his friends and demonize his enemies. His movie hits both marks. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: The script gradually becomes an ambiguous mixture of hope and desperation; at times it feels almost bipartisan in its politics. Read more

Ruth Hessey, MovieTime, ABC Radio National: Moore is always visually playful and subversive, and even when dealing with such serious and depressing topics entertaining; but he's also game enough to examine America's mythology of prosperity. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Capitalism is intended to convince Americans that they've bought into an economic system designed to screw them over, but the tone is so smart-ass that it's bound to put a lot of viewers into a default defensive posture. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Capitalism may be flawed, but it is nevertheless entertaining. Which counts for a lot. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Isn't every Michael Moore film ultimately about capitalism? This one just has a more facetious title. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Like most of his movies, this will probably make your blood boil, but it functions at a level of such blubbering emotionality that it might as well be a Glenn Beck rant. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Smart-alecky and simplistic? Yeah. And primo Moore. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Moore is much better at indicting culprits than providing solutions. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Michael Moore is up to his old tricks in Capitalism: A Love Story, and that's sure to both infuriate, and entertain and inform, depending which side of the Michael Moore fence you stand on. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: At its best, Capitalism: A Love Story is a searing outcry against the excesses of a cutthroat time. At its worst, it's dorm-room Marxism. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: Has only a few traces of Moore's wit and humor, and they're nearly lost in the fog of his indignation. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: A collection of outrageous facts sprayed like a shotgun blast towards what Moore deems the modern Roman Empire. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Moore's scattershot is a lot more interesting than some filmmakers' focus, and many of those individual parts are classic. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: For all his lack of objectivity and occasional fact-twisting, Moore takes on dauntingly complex subjects and turns them into hugely entertaining, provocative pictures. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Proving that demagoguery can come as easily from the left as from the right, Michael Moore has produced a jerry-rigged jeremiad about free enterprise that hands up some very legitimate indictments, without really making a case. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story is something else -- not a good movie or a coherent exposition of the meltdown but an emotional attack on capitalism as a system, an attempt, literally, to de-moralize capitalism. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Is everything always the bank's fault? Is it only the guys in suits who can get greedy? In Moore's world, yes, it is. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: The film works best when Moore sits with representatives of the 99 percent of Americans vulnerable to financial freefall. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Isn't it Washington that took money from the taxpayers to bail out the banks? Shouldn't Moore run his yellow crime-scene tape around the White House? Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Capitalism is alternately moving and disheartening, energizing and enervating. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: In passages, the movie is eloquent. In sum, it is scattershot. Organization is not Moore's strongest suit; indignation is. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: There's a simmering anger here that hasn't been present since Moore first burst upon the cinematic world with Roger and Me. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The film's title is never explained. What does Moore mean? Maybe it's that capitalism means never having to say you're sorry. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Moore sees our abusive relationship with capitalism as a growing plague. His movie, a genuine and welcome rabble-rouser, lays out the history of how democracy got corrupted. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: This is a love story, all right, but it has less to do with the flaws of capitalism than it does with Moore's unwavering fondness for the sound of his own voice, and for what he perceives as his own vast cleverness. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Moore's choice to make "capitalism" his straw man (rather than, say, greed or Reagan-era deregulation) puts him in closer company than he might like with some pretty nasty world-historical bedfellows. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: With Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore delivers his liveliest, most radical film to date. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The lack of a factual backbone will be catnip for conservatives who attack everything that Moore does, regardless of the validity of his arguments. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: As a filmmaker creating a product for a marketplace, supported by profit-seeking investors, he obviously has some comfort level with capitalism in the sense of doing business. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The result is a film that stands as one of Moore's finest arguments. It's also one of his funniest, if you accept that the jokes are all of the gritted-teeth variety. Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: The thesis that rapacious capitalism has horrific social consequences is credible and well illustrated, if hardly eye-opening to European viewers. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Capitalism is as entertaining as Roger & Me, and its critique skewers both major political parties, calling into question the economic policies of Bill Clinton as well as Ronald Reagan. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: By returning to his roots, professional gadfly Michael Moore turns in one of his best films. Read more

Ella Taylor, Village Voice: [A] scattershot, lazy slice of agitprop, which recycles Moore's usual slice-and-dice job on corporations, while bobbing a curtsey to the current crisis. Read more