Sicko: A

There are few words to describe how I felt after watching Sicko. I suppose "upset" or "depreseed" comes close but the unique blend of seething moralist outrage that documentarian Michael Moore conjures is almost beyond description. It left me feeling sick, tired, and above all, irate. In his devious, scathing expose Moore deconstructs the healthcare industry with something akin to mainstream brilliance; he blends his media footage into a cocktail that is just plain deadly...serious.

Sicko begins with the usual horror stories - in this case, a husband and wife driven into their childrens' basement due to bankruptcy-inducing medical bills - and it wastes no time in assembling them into a shape vaguely relating to the dark humor of Bowling for Columbine (Moore's only other great film) while losing none of the factoidal relevance of Fahrenheit 9/11. Not even 30 minutes in and Sicko has taken on the affecting portrait of a screwball attack on American medicine; something bitingly sad as well as surprisingly humorous. It is from these mildly tame roots that Moore springs forth on a wicked offensive - deconstructing medical myths at nearly every turn while managing to turn a self-refracting lens on himself and the American media in the process.

He explores the roots of the U.S. "HMO" (Nixon had a hand in it cerca 1971). He examines the ever-shifting, ever-conflicting, ever satirically absurd regulations for approval that said HMO's use (apparently you need to be somewhere between 5-6 feet and 130-170 pounds). He takes a look at the deadly denial claims that are an insurance company's bread & butter as well as a minor yet tragic side-glance into the people that make these denials. From these investigations he concludes, playing the part of the ever ignorant "American", that socialized medicine must be doing something right...and so he heads to find out.

His explorations into the universal health systems of 99.9% of the western world make up a vast majority of Sicko and yet what leaves you with a feeling of momentous disgust - at the industry, at the government, at the lobbyists - is Moore's persistent argument for change and discovery. What makes his latest film such a good one is that he melds his curiousity with his deft visual humor into something that elevates that argument into art.

The final segments of his documentary explore exactly what it means to suffer at the hands of America; to truly suffer, inexplicably and unexpectedly. His footage, of interviews and security camera tapes, is downright tear-jerking and something worthy of infinite respect, both for Moore as a filmmaker and for the people on whom he turned his camera. After all, who among us hasn't been scared silly by the specter of "SOCIALIZED MEDICINE"? Who among us hasn't simply shaken our heads at the plight of the un-insured millions and kept right on walking? In his incendiary, crafty, expansively compassion way Moore dares us to stop what we are doing and to see for once (in a mosaic of bold emotional power) the lies of the HMO's, the lies of the pundits and politicos, and finally, just to see the light (universal coverage) that we as a country have let lie dark (privatized insurance) for far too long.