Sicko

Sicko will fucking piss you off! It will also unsettle, unnerve and upset you more than, quite possibly, any other film you've ever seen. Why? Because it's true. Because it has happened to people like you and me. The movie will also make you laugh because it's made by Michael Moore, who always infuses his films with humor. Thank Christ, because if not they would make audiences monumentally depressed.

I'm a Michael Moore fan. Big time. I've seen all of his movies and every episode of his, sadly, short-lived TV show, The Awful Truth. I realize not everyone feels this way. Moore divides people. He's a "you either love him or hate him" kind of guy. I think people misunderstand him.

The style he uses in his films makes his vision clear. In my mind at least. He's telling you, through his film, when he's making a funny or when he's having fun with the material. Listen to the music he uses, or the images he shows. This is what you do when you make a film, you use image and sound to get your point across, to manipulate the viewer. Manipulate? Sounds bad, right? Well it's true. Have you ever seen Psycho? Chinatown? The Usual Suspects? The Sixth Sense? See what I’m sayin’? The reason I’m explaining this is because Moore gets accused a lot, by Republicans or neo-con big mouth talk shows "hosts," of manipulating things. I've been hassled for liking his films and challenged by people, angry people, about how honest he's being and what his motivations are. I think he's being honest. I realize that he's being completely one-sided in some cases. The same big mouth blowhard fuckhead talk show "hosts" are one-sided. I feel Moore's trying to prove a point. And he does. Quite effectively. Whether you like his approach or him as an on-camera personality, there's one thing you can't deny, he's out there for the better of this country and the people who live in it. He's asking questions that no journalist will ask. He's bringing up hypocrisies in politicians, and policy. People are scared of him and that's why they don't like him. There's a scene in Sicko that proves this. I won't spoil it.

Whether you're liberal, conservative, extremist or somewhere in between, this movie will scare you, move you and even make you laugh. You may laugh because of misplaced anxiety though because what's going on with our Healthcare is downright frightening.

Usually, Moore is front and center in his films, on camera and interacting with his subjects. He lays back a bit in Sicko. Especially at the beginning. He doesn't need to be front and center, the stories do. He slides in at just the right time because I needed a break from the stories. They were that upsetting.

This is the kind of film which should be shown in classrooms across the country. Kids need to see this film and understand we need change. They're going to be the ones to save us, to carry the torch that will hopefully be lit in the very near future, burning for everyone's right to live a healthy life, unburdened by the threat of getting sick and not having a chance to be taken care of because they aren’t “covered.” But I shouldn't just place it on the kids. Everyone should watch this film.