Sicko [DVD] [2007] - Region 2 DVD

The problem, of course, for a UK audience is that it’s a very American system that Moore is attacking in Sicko. He’s out to highlight the number of people with health insurance who are getting perfectly legitimate claims turned away, as the companies concerned get fat off the profits. But there is a British angle, as Moore presents a surprisingly idyllic take on Britain’s own health service, that does sit in the midst of the film’s flabby middle section.

Yet when Moore points Sicko at the very people the system is letting down, his skills very much come to the fore. He puts forward passionate, partisan arguments with an incendiary style that few working American documentary makes can come close to matching, and it makes Sicko compulsive viewing. Whether you agree with the man’s politics or not, his films are provocative, very well made and hard not to admire. Sicko is no exception. --Jon Foster