MEGAPHONING IT IN Moore repeats himself.

Whatever you may think of Moore, it’s hard to deny his ability to explain complex concepts in simple—okay, simplistic—terms. Which makes it all the more disheartening that Capitalism: A Love Story is such a mess. Seizing an opportunity to trace the roots of the financial crisis for a popular audience, Moore muddles the issue by attacking the entire notion of capitalism—albeit with a wildly varied level of detail and a shocking lack of focus. One minute he’ll be taking a crowbar to Hank Paulson; the next he’ll be chatting with his good friend Wallace Shawn.

Some of his potshots hit home. In one horrifying interlude, Moore explains how companies can take out special life-insurance policies that amount to bets against their employees’ lives, and there’s a passionate plea for better treatment of airline pilots. But neither feels especially germane, at least relative to the screen time each receives. Moore also still has a thing for jumbled chronology: He scores major points trashing Timothy Geithner’s judgment, then mystifyingly portrays Obama’s election as a new dawn for the economy—as if Geithner weren’t part of the package. There’s some good information in Capitalism: A Love Story. What it lacks is a cogent argument, which is, alas, probably what it most needed.

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