This anti-United Nations documentary shows that while director Ami Horowitz doesn’t share Michael Moore’s politics, he worships Moore’s techniques, particularly the “Fahrenheit 9/11” director’s love of filming himself while cracking wise.
Horowitz also shares Moore’s, shall we say, selectivity. UN successes, such as its vaccination programs, get about one sentence of narration. Instead, there’s a lengthy section alleging that Iran seeks nuclear weapons, and the UN is ignoring the threat — a barely disguised plea for pre-emptive strikes.
The UN, as some recall, also told us Iraq had no nukes, a fact that didn’t make the final edit here, perhaps to make time for stock footage of missiles launching as men chant “Allah” on the soundtrack. Horowitz, like Moore, is also more or less impervious to giving offense.
What truly makes “U.N. Me’’ repulsive is its crassness. When Horowitz attacks the abysmal UN failure in Rwanda, he’s on righteous ground. But no filmmaker possessed of a scrap of artistic judgment would superimpose a sarcastic joke (“Don’t worry, Darfur, you’ll get your apology in 10 years”) over a shot of endless rows of human skulls. Tackle genocide, and the documentaries towering over you are “Shoah” and “Night and Fog” — not “Roger & Me.”