Thoughts: Political 11/9

(I know, this article was not published on November 9th...)

A month or two ago, I briefly considered signing up for MoviePass. Though the company had existed for some time, their offer of one movie a day for ten dollars seemed like an impossible task, as if I would be compelled to try to achieve this duty. It was only when their service was reduced to three movies a month, that the whole experience seemed attainable. But in the short span of time, while I considered the option, they altered the offer again, from three movies a month, to three movies a month, but only certain movies each day.

This was a condition I couldn't accept, but my interest had been piqued, and searching online, I discovered Sinemia. The company, based in Los Angeles, was founded before MoviePass, but the latter's near demise has led to renewed interest in the concept of a movie plan. The opportunity of Sinemia is that it currently offers one ticket a month for five dollars (I signed on when it was four), three for ten, or thirty for thirty (one a day). The negative aspect: the process of obtaining a ticket is atrocious. Read this article for the complicated procedure.

Even worse than acquiring a ticket was trying to reach their customer service. I thought I found their email, support@sinemia.com, but when I emailed them, I received:
Their website, https://contact.sinemia.com/, claims their email is https://help.sinemia.com. I'm pretty certain that's not an email format, and clicking it brings the user to a How Can We Help You page, with a menu, but no method of contact. As a final rejection, they have no phone number to call. For a last resort, a customer can contact them on their website, but I sent a request on Monday, and now it's late Thursday, with no reply.

Note:  The service itself seems to work fine, so far.

But I wouldn't discuss Sinemia's potential and problems, except that I saw Fahrenheit 11/9 by Michael Moore. I've seen a number of his movies, Bowling for Columbine, Roger and Me, Where to Invade Next (which isn't what one would assume it's about), and Fahrenheit 9/11. The last of these, I remember seeing with a friend's family, and was a bit frightened, not by the movie or my friend's family, but at the people yelling at the movie. Even though they were yelling in support of Moore's film (and at the lies told to sell the Iraq War), it was something I'd never experienced in a theater.

For 11/9 though, I altered my experience, and saw it at 9:30pm, in New Hampshire, after it had been released a month ago. The forty person room was empty.

I don't consider myself much of a movie critic, aside from my brief, three article condemnation of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. On another side note, I found The Last Jedi to be only slightly better, in that it wasn't a complete copy of a previous movie. Back to Moore's movie.

Moore divides his two hour movie into three distinct acts. The first third addresses the people responsible for the election of Donald Trump. It's a mixture of sincerity, hilarity, and humility. He begins with hilarity; Gwen Stefanie. Moore's claim, which I think he offers more for laughs then truth, is that Trump discovered Stefanie was making more on the Voice then he was on the Apprentice. Both were owned by NBC, and Trump made his announcement to run for President as a PR stunt. It backfired though, because remember how atrocious that first press conference was (They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.)? In response, NBC didn't offer Trump more money, they fired him!

The humility comes soon afterward. Michael Moore blames himself for three particular instances. One, he was scheduled to interview Trump with Rosanne Barr and Trump was going to walk, unless Moore agreed to ask only softball questions, and he caved. Two, Jared Kushner helped promote Michael Moore's 2007 movie Sicko, and Steve Bannon ran a company which sold the DVD version of one of Moore's movies.

The list of serious responsibility is laid on quite a few people (and inanimate objects, concepts, events, and organizations), and none of them unreasonably. Comey, Russia, News Networks, Morning Joe, NBC, Snyder, Jamie Dimon, Bill Clinton, the Electoral College, Democrats compromising, the NYT, the Liberal Establishment, Birther-ism, the Democratic National Convention, Super delegates, Hillary Clinton, Iraq Invasion, Teacher Union Representatives, the NRA, President Obama (especially his visit to Flint, MI), 9/11, G.W. Bush, Reagan, and one or two more things, which I can't remember or read, because I tried to scribble them down on a scrap of paper in the dark, while watching the movie.

Of course he also critiques the viewer, every citizen, for having failed in their civic duty by not registering their voice sooner against the man when he was on The Apprentice.

I'm not going to debate any of these, but move on to the middle of the movie. This section focuses on Flint, Michigan, Moore's hometown and site of the 2014 (and ongoing) water crises, where a decision made by Governor Rick Snyder led to the poisoning of a 100,000 person city. Moore provides the details, photographs the pathos, and enacts one of his usual absurd stunts: attempting a citizen's arrest of the Governor. After watching this section, it's difficult to imagine how Snyder isn't going to prison, but our society is becoming more aware of how corrupt it is, and how difficult it is to jail the privileged. Moore's actions, and he makes similarly strange attempts in every one of his movies, seem absurd, stunt-like, and yet perhaps he is only doing what we all need to do for society to defeat corruption.

Moore uses this middle section with Flint as a microcosm for the United States. Snyder is Trump, a corrupt man who cares only for power and wealth, and will hurt citizens for profit, then lie and dissemble when caught. With the right people backing you, in Snyder's case, the Michigan government (and even President Obama), and in the President's situation, Republicans in the House and Senate, there is no penalty for such behavior.

The final third of the movie, as Glenn Greenwald notes in his review, is the weakest link, as it tries to compare Trump to Hitler, though some aspects of it are more convincing then others. When Moore imposes Trump's Inaugural Address over a video of Hitler speaking, one nearly laughs, because his voice fails to elicit the commanding power of the Nazi leader. But there are plenty of reasonable arguments in this final section worthy of attention.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the movie is how Moore embraces an incredibly uplifting optimism, like when he depicts the events of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and the activism some survivors have embraced, and yet also offers a dreadfully pessimistic expectation of our future. He can highlight our potential, both for the forces of justice and equality, but also for madness, corruption, and despair.

As I left the theater, I was surprised to discover, I hadn't been a solitary viewer. Another man had entered late to the entertainment, but we were able to discuss the pros and cons of the movie on a midnight walk to our cars. It was a fitting conclusion for a thoughtful and satisfactory day.

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