This is unexpected
FOXNews
Filmmaker Michael Moore's brilliant and uplifting new documentary, "Sicko," deals with the failings of the U.S. healthcare system, both real and perceived. But this time around, the controversial documentarian seems to be letting the subject matter do the talking, and in the process shows a new maturity.
Unlike many of his previous films ("Roger and Me," "Bowling for Columbine," "Fahrenheit 9-11"), "Sicko" works because in this one there are no confrontations. Moore smartly lets very articulate average Americans tell their personal horror stories at the hands of insurance companies. The film never talks down or baits the audience.
Outtakes from a few more early reviews below:
Variety.Com
Three years after winning Cannes' top prize for "Fahrenheit 9/11," docu helmer and agent provocateur Michael Moore returns to the Croisette with more polemics-as-performance-art in "Sicko," an affecting and entertaining dissection of the American health care industry, showing how it benefits the few at the expense of the many. Pic's tone alternates between comedy, poignancy and outrage as it compares the U.S system of care to other countries. Given Moore's celebrity and fan base, plus heightened awareness of pic resulting from the heated battle that's already begun between left and right, returns look to be extremely healthy.
Pic should also play well internationally, providing an eye-opening lesson for foreigners who may be inclined (like Moore's Canadian cousins) to take out insurance from their homeland before visiting the States.
Chief criticism of the pic is that it paints too rosy a picture of the national health care of the countries he compares America to, including Canada, England, France — and Cuba.
Employing his trademark personal narration and David vs. Goliath approach, Moore enlivens what is, in essence, a depressing subject by wrapping it in irony and injecting levity wherever possible:
Political bloggers totally have the wrong gig. If you make it to the top of the heap in political blogging you get what? You get to follow a campaign around, sleep on the floor of a hotel room and fetch coffee for the MSM?
Film blogging. That's where it's at. These motherfuckers go Cannes ever year.
Empire Film Reviews
And, hey, there’s even more good news. Arriving cloak-and-dagger style from a secret location, Michael Moore’s new documentary Sicko unspooled to a VERY warm reception. Kicking off with the obligatory swipe at Bush, Sicko is a more mellow film than we’re used to seeing from the less-lardy-than-usual firebrand. Perhaps a little too obvious targeted at a domestic audience (Moore says "we" a lot when he means "we Americans"), it offers his take on the American healthcare system and how lives and limbs are being lost in pursuit of profit. Less hectoring than his usual style, Moore’s film really swings into focus during a conversation with Tony Benn, who talks about the two means of control that a government has at its disposal: fear and demoralization. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that both these subjects have been tackled before, and Sicko is the film that truly reveals Moore as an auteur, binding these two issues together to question the Bush administration on moral grounds as well as political. The final stunt is pure Moore – rounding up some heroes from Ground Zero, the filmmakers takes them to Guantanamo Bay, where members of Al Qaeda are receiving the kind of medical treatment that most Americans can’t afford. Moore’s laconic plea for "no more or less than the evildoers are receiving" will go down in cinema history as one of his most effective gestures, tying up the government in its own red tape. Interestingly, Moore seemed very subdued at the press conference and was not relishing the results of an official investigation into his trip to Camp X-Ray, which resulted in a diversion to Havana, Cuba, still very much a no-go area for US citizens. He has ten days to respond to the White House’s questions, and that time expires on Tuesday night. He’s at the festival for a while yet, so we’ll keep you posted as to whether the 2004 Palme D’Or winner is likely join Paris Hilton in jail...