some reviews from Cannes:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6673039.stm

Moore courts Cannes controversy
By Stephen Robb
Entertainment reporter, BBC News, in Cannes

Michael Moore has launched his latest controversial documentary in Cannes, saying he feared it would be seized by US authorities before it was seen.

Sicko, in which the director attacks the US health system, has had its first screening at the French film festival.

But the US Treasury is investigating whether Moore broke the trade embargo against Cuba by filming there.

Moore told reporters he had to send a copy of the film to an unnamed country in case they confiscated the original.

The Treasury said it had no record of a licence being issued authorising travel to Cuba, and Moore could face a fine or jail.

A copy of Sicko was sent out of the US less than 24 hours after he was told about the investigation, the film-maker said.

His lawyers advised him the master copy could be confiscated as part of the probe, he told journalists.

The documentary includes sequences in which Moore takes rescue workers from the 11 September attacks in New York to near the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay and a Cuban hospital.

The group are suffering from conditions thought to be linked to their work clearing up debris from the site of the World Trade Center.

"The point was not to go to Cuba, it was to go to American soil, to Guantanamo Bay, to take the 9/11 rescue workers there to receive the same healthcare that they are giving the al-Qaeda detainees," Moore said.

"No film-maker should ever have to be talking about jail or fines or where he or she can travel."

In a letter dated 2 May, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control gave Moore 20 working days to provide more details of his Cuba visit, including who went with him and why.

"This office has no record that a specific licence was issued authorising you to engage in travel-related transactions involving Cuba," it said.

Moore told a Cannes press conference: "I know a lot of you have written: 'How dumb are they to give us all this publicity?'

"But I am the one who is personally being investigated, and I am the one who is personally liable for potential fines or jail so I don't take it lightly."

The film-maker described Sicko as a "call to action" over the provision of healthcare.

'Rise up'

"We are never going to have real change in the United States if the public doesn't see that it will only happen when they rise up out of their theatre seats and do something about it."

Moore's film looks at healthcare provision in the UK, France and Canada, and the director said the US should adopt the best elements of other countries' systems.

"What we should do as Americans is what we always do... just take all the things that each of you are doing right and put it into one system, and call it the American system."

The film-maker won the Palme d'Or in Cannes in 2004 with Fahrenheit 9/11, an examination of the White House's decision to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He won an Oscar in 2002 for the documentary Bowling for Columbine, a critique of US gun culture in the wake of the shootings at Columbine High School.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6672515.stm

Not the biggest Michael Moore fan but i have no health insurance so i'm all over this one. everybody should see it but only cause it might help me one of these years

I'm so proud of Michael Moore for exposing this country's ugly truths. He is a stand-up American!

If it weren't for Michael Moore, ridiculously important issues like the ones he covers won't ever be in the minds of those who don't follow politics/news, especially kids. I'm really looking forward to this one/

I can never figure out when Sunny's making shit up.

I need to use the icon more often.

I'd say its acceptable for Michael Moore to be viewed as a hypocrite, charlatan, or whatever. But his movies do have soul and he often makes a strong case. Bolling for Columbine and Roger & Me are too important to be dismissed, and his critics just concern themselves with his antics rather than the substance of his films.

And its funny that Sunny should criticize a respected filmmaker when his source for news is Fox.

i dont think moore is as respected overall as youd like to believe, he twists the truths to suit his opinion every bit as much as fox does

...and it's funny that you don't know what the hell you are talking about.

Ehahahahaha i can go to Cuba whenever i want to, guys.

'Sicko' Shows Michael Moore's Maturity as a Filmmaker
Sunday, May 20, 2007
By Roger Friedman


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.

"This film is a call to action," Moore said at a press conference on Saturday. "It's also not a partisan film."

Indeed, in "Sicko," Moore criticizes both Democrats and Republicans for their inaction and in some cases their willingness to be bribed by pharmaceutical companies and insurance carriers.

In a key moment in the film, Moore takes a group of patients by boat to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba because of its outstanding medical care. When they can't get into the U.S. naval base, Moore proceeds onto Havana where the patients are treated well and cheaply.

This has caused a great deal of controversy, with the federal government launching an investigation into the trip, which officials say was in violation of the trade and commerce embargo against the Communist country.

"This administration flaunts the law, flaunts the constitution," Moore said at the press conference, explaining the flap over the trip to Cuba.

Moore now claims the U.S. government says his Cuban footage may be illegal, and Moore said he made a second master copy of "Sicko" and had it shipped it to France immediately just in case of potential government issues.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,273875,00.html

damn, this must be good

bravo c_b.

this should be great, can't wait to see it

This is extremely encouraging. As much as I liked Bowling for Coumbine, F-911 was too one-sided to be completely effective. I'm looking forward to this.

F-911 was what it was. It had one purpose in mind and I really can't see myself revisiting the film wheras Bowling for Columbine raises some good questions and is still interesting and relevant as a film. I'll be looking forward to seeing what he's done with this. It'll make for good conversation fodder afterwards at least.

[quote="Mercury"]F-911 was what it was. It had one purpose in mind and I really can't see myself revisiting the film wheras Bowling for Columbine raises some good questions and is still interesting and relevant as a film.

But the problem here is that Moore twists truths, and in some instances makes them up, just as much in BFC as he does in F911. The questions he brings up in Fahrenheit are just as valid as the questions he brings up in BFC - he just comes off as much, much more biased in Fahrenheit. I don't like Moore because he's a self-aggrandizing exploitist in many ways, but I do hope that this newest film shows some maturation in him as a "documentarian."

I think that there's a bias is a given when you go in to view the film. Still, I enjoy seeing the ruckus that he manages to stir up, even if I'm not a fan of his persona.

Can this get knocked into News & Debate? Once it's in wide release and the Neocons start sucking the dick of HMOs and profit-driven health insurance, it's really going to be a better fit over there.