We’re pretty accustomed to Michael Moore railing against some political injustice or other. In a film-making career spanning over twenty years, the documentarian has taken on issues like unemployment, healthcare, corruption and gun control and has picked up an Academy Award for his troubles. He is one of the most recognisable and outspoken advocates of social justice and has never shied away from confrontations with figures in positions of authority. In his new movie, he goes for the big one; this time, it’s the entire system that is in the firing line.

Capitalism: A Love Story opens with some basic but nonetheless accurate parallels drawn between the final days of the crumbling Roman Empire and the current travails of the USA. There follows some uncomfortable viewing as he presents those suffering house repossessions, job-losses, bankruptcies and evictions, people who are, without exception, working-class folk. “This is Capitalism; a system of giving and taking... mostly taking”.

Moore identifies the 50’s and 60’s as the idyllic phase of American capitalism. A period in which the US, propelled to the position of the World’s #1 economy, had a 90% tax rate on its highest earners and, Moore claims, “No-one ever had it so good”. Of course, as you can undoubtedly guess, this didn’t last.

He highlights the Reagan presidency as the instigator of a number of policies that would inevitably overturn FDR’s ‘New Deal’ and LBJ’s ‘Great Society’: Tax cuts for the rich, legislation in favour of big business, dismantling infrastructure for short-term profits in order to destroy unions. Basically, running the country like it was a corporation... and running it into the ground.

Whatever your feelings on Michael Moore, he is inarguably the only film-maker who seems willing or able to address the economic crisis with the emotion it deserves – namely, outrage. He even gives time to air the view that, from a religious standpoint, Capitalism is a sin with Fr. Dick Preston claiming that “Capitalism has to be eliminated” and Fr. Peter Dougherty opining that “Capitalism is wrong, outrageous, obscene”. Strong stuff, but enthusiastically echoed by the experiences of numerous other people throughout. Capitalism: A Love Story ends with Moore imploring us to join him in his struggle against an unjust, abhorrent, rotten, iniquitous system that rewards the few at the expense of the many. Aptly enough, the credits roll to a swing version of The Internationale.

Human suffering, audacious corruption, shocking criminality, disgusting gluttony – Michael Moore unrelentingly shines a torch on each of these unsettling aspects of the financial disaster. Amidst the dark, often horrifying revelations however, there are some powerfully uplifting tales; stories of people power and community action that provide hope for a better future built around the principle of direct democracy. This makes for incredibly compelling viewing, emotive in the extreme. Above all, Moore makes his case with assured confidence and is utterly, utterly convincing.

Smash the system.

- Sebastian Clare