RSS 2.0 FeedOctober 21, 2009, Featured Articles, Film
New environmental documentary makes you miss Al Gore
Imagine living without your automobile, electricity, plastic bottles or anything else that might have an environmental impact. In an effort to inspire people to save the planet, Manhattan-based author Colin Beavan subjected his family to a spartan lifestyle for a year in the less than impactful documentary, No Impact Man. My question is: where is Al Gore when you need him?
Imagine living without your automobile, electricity, plastic bottles or anything else that might have an environmental impact. In an effort to inspire people to save the planet, Manhattan-based author Colin Beavan subjected his family to a spartan lifestyle for a year in the less than impactful documentary, No Impact Man. My question is: where is Al Gore when you need him?
Initially, Beavan comes across as a shameless self-promoter as he bounces around from one network morning show to another promoting his new green lifestyle. (By the way, didn't the pioneers of the 19th century lead a "green" lifestyle with their covered wagons, mud houses and non-pasteurized milk? And wasn't their life expectancy around 45?)
Beavan, whose motive is to get a book deal, expresses hope to experience good feelings about not hurting the environment and that his writing will help the world. While his attempt should appear to be noble, his words and deeds come across as elitist and naive. He also might as well dress up as polarizing filmmaker Michael Moore for Halloween because it doesn't take much prodding for him to make a subtle swipe at capitalism for causing all of our ills.
Now Beavan doesn't commit to his new lifestyle overnight. Everything is done in "phases" so it will be easier to adapt. This plan of action suits his wife, Michelle Conlin, who has some trouble adjusting to doing without, and compensates by cheating a little at work.
Dramatic tension is added when Conlin expresses her desire for another child before her clock quits ticking. Beavan doesn't want anymore kids and refuses at first to bend even though he has dragged his wife and little girl into his green scheme.
No Impact Man does provide some insightful moments, like when Beavan notes that the average American produces 1,600 pounds of trash a year. His efforts expose how wasteful of a society we have become, although he barely acknowledges how far we've come in regards to recycling.
In the long run, Beavan's experiment falls short of being truly green. Arguably, the tons of media coverage alone, including the millions of newspapers and magazines devoted to his story, created a far greater environmental impact than what his family would have done by themselves. Furthermore, if he had truly wanted to leave no impact, then Beavan should have taken a page from Henry David Thoreau and moved out into woods, built a house, and grew all of his own food.
If you really want to be inspired to action, watch Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth again.
On a letter grade scale from A being excellent to F for failing, No Impact Man receives a C-.
No Impact Man is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 90 minutes.
Now showing through October 22 @
Tivoli Cinemas
Westport Manor Square, 4050 Pennsylvania, KCMO
Visit www.tivolikc.com or call 913-383-7756 for showtimes.
Indie Film Editor
Michael D. Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts in history at College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri followed by a Master of Arts in history at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Inspired by such critics as Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, Michael started reviewing films in 1992 for College of the Ozarks's student-run newspaper. After returning to the Kansas City area in 1994, he continued film reviewing by writing for the Cass County Democrat Missourian in Harrisonville.
In 2000 Michael joined Sun Publications in Overland Park, Kansas where he served as its film critic and Arts and Entertainment Editor. During his tenure there, he was also the film critic for the "Fine Arts Radio Hour" and "Celebrity Scoop" radio shows on KXTR. After leaving the Sun in late 2002, he became the A&E writer for the Olathe News in Olathe, Kansas. He also worked as a freelance writer for The Squire in Leawood, Showcase Publishing in Lake Ozark, Missouri and the Kansas City Star.
Michael is currently a member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, a professional film critic organization established in 1966 by the late Dr. James Loutzenhiser.
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