LFF: ‘Fahrenheit 11/9’ Review: Dir. Michael Moore (2018)

Fahrenheit 11/9: How the fuck did this happen, Michael Moore asks at the beginning of his latest feature documentary, and technically his second on now President of the United States, Donald Trump (following his 2016 effort Michael Moore in Trumpland). That question accurately sums up this companion piece to his 2004 award-winner Fahrenheit 9/11, a two-hour plus opus that covers everything from gun control to apparent ethnic cleansing in Moore’s hometown of Flint, Michigan.

Moore’s work largely divides audiences due the obvious nature of its content, but perhaps none more so than this very urgent piece about the lead up and indeed aftermath of Trump being voted into office.

The documentarian’s wicked sense of humour is ever present in the film’s very well constructed opening five minutes – a trip back to that day in November of 2016 where modern political history was made – for better or worse, depending on your stand-point. Moore initially focuses his camera on the hopes of millions of voters for Hillary Clinton, all gathered in the glass-ceiling-ed palace that was is the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, New York City. The party had already started, but quickly came to a close, the ceiling failing to shatter in those early hours when the swing-meter surprisingly went the other way and Trump was proclaimed President-elect at just after 2.30 am local time. It’s not long before Moore is blaming, tongue firmly in cheek, the whole thing on Gwen Stefani, his well-oiled film-making machine off and running,us taken on a cinematic journey to look at what the fuck indeed did happen.

It’s largely an enjoyable, informative watch, if a little shocking, naturally. As always, Moore is unrelenting and fearless with his expose, not afraid to focus on issues not widely reported, though equally jaw-dropping, if not more so. The film is broken into segments, swaying away from Washington occasionally, the segment on Flint, which is covered more than once – the point a little laboured at the connection between some events and others not massively explained at certain points.

The film looks at the state of American politics in general, and not specifically at the Trump administration, and as we progress, Moore branches out more and more, the viewer being led more and more into this baffling world in which we’re now a part of. He then brings us out the other side with a shift to the hope of the future – a new hope – the teenagers reacting to horrific events of recent times and taking the situation into their own hands, adult very much out of the picture.

It’s a long watch – perhaps too long, but it a rewarding one. Even if you don’t agree with Moore’s politics, it is a film which will start conversations and intense debate, which is surely the filmmaker’s intention all the long. It’s not so much a recommendation to go see Fahrenheit 11/9, but more of a necessity.

Fahrenheit 11/9 review by Paul Heath, October 2018.

Fahrenheit 11/9 was reviewed at the 2018 BFI London Film Festival.