I was lucky enough to catch a preview screening of Capitalism: A Love Story last week. It was all the things you would expect from a Michael Moore Film; depressing, inspiring, frustrating, bewildering and above all, totally one-sided!

Like The Cove, this is a film that sets out with a story in mind and edits out anything that doesn’t support it. Also like The Cove, it paints such a terrible picture that you feel that there is no need to see the other side as nothing could justify the cruelty that these people inflict on others (or dolphins, like in The Cove (really, you should watch that, it’s good)). It makes you challenge your beliefs and to question your own lifestyle - these are the things that a good documentary should do! Not since Life and Debt have I felt so angry at the culture of greed that drives western society.

Capitalism hearkens back to Michael Moore’s first film, Roger and Me, and is easily as strong as Sicko. It still has the US-centric viewpoint that made Fahrenheit 911 so boring, but since the economic fuck ups in the US had such a global reach it makes sense this time to keep such a tight focus. It also helped me endure the heavy religious themes towards the end, as I can understand how that would play in America even if it doesn’t resonate with me.

So, a one eyed flag waving American puff piece on the evils of capitalism, and still it got a standing ovation. Although in a crowd where everyone got in for free, it’s probably preaching to the converted.