Thursday, September 14, 2006

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH makes an impact even if you think you are already convinced

I am so tired of watching agitprop documentaries that make really obvious cases for liberal causes that I already believe in. Yes, yes, ENRON was run by a bunch of narcissistic fraudsters and Big Oil is evil, but do these film-makers really believe that they are preaching to anyone but the converted? By definition, no mean-old polluting exploiter is going to lay down ten bucks to see this kind of movie. And so, when I wrote up this week's UK openings in the sidebar, I oh-so-wittily called this new release: Less AN INCOVENIENT TRUTH than a blindingly obvious one.

Well, here's what you already know. AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH is essentially a hi-def video record of the ex-Vice President, Al Gore's powerpoint presentation on global warming. Although interspersed with some footage of Al going to his parent's farm, or wandering through the airports of the world, laptop in hand, this is basically just Al standing up and pointing at photos and charts. The newsflash is that Al Gore is incisive and brings new weight to bear on an issue that we right-thinking liberals think we know so well. In some cases, the scientific results and photos he shows have never before been released. In others, he just manages that rare thing - explaining quite dry, technical issues in a clear and memorable manner.

The hour and a half of this documentary fly by, and even if Al is preaching to the choir, he is "adding value" (to use that awful phrase) by going over and above the newspaper sound-bite. Perhaps more surprisingly, he is really rather entertaining. Indeed, I found myself laughing out loud at his jokes more times than at Will Ferrell in TALLADEGA NIGHTS. So, AN INCOVENIENT TRUTH is not only a compelling and intelligent documentary about global warming, it is also, incidentally, a damning indictment of the
bland, mediocre comedies being pumped out my Hollywood this year.

AN INCOVENIENT TRUTH showed at Sundance and Cannes 2006 and is on release in the UK, Finland, Iceland, Thailand, Sweden, Singapore, Sweden, Australia, Portugal, Denmark, Finland and the UK. It goes on release in Hong Kong, Belgium, France, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Slovenia in October. It rolls into Mexico, Chile, Spain, Hungary, Argentina and Italy in November and opens in Japan in January 2007.

1 comment:

  1. I think you got it backwards. I find myself preferring to vote for Will Ferrell for President before Al 'Bore' Gore. Which is really a damning indictment of the bland, mediocre and incompetent options available for the candiacy of the white house back in the year 2000. How else could a monkey like Bush get into power?

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