2006_06_04_archive

I Am My Own Damn Review: An Inconvenient Truth

So, who's enough of a dick to find humor in a film about how the world

is coming to an end? Me and my friends apparently, though our humor

mainly derived from parroting South Park. This film is as polarizing

as the issue of global warming itself. Is "An Inconvenient Truth" well

made and captivating? Yes. Is it an important film? Yes. Will the film

make any difference? Short answer yes with an 'if', long answer no

with a 'but'.

Why do all of the worst movie trailers happen to me? After being

robbed of my "Snakes on a Plane" trailer before X-Men 3, I had to sit

through the trailer for "World Trade Center." America is going to love

this movie, but New York is going to fucking riot. It's just yet

another way for people in the "heartland" to feel like they're in tune

with the tragedy, but still be completely distanced from it. As a New

Yorker, I feel safe saying to the "heartland" and especially the Bush

administration that 9/11 is our tragedy. You can't have it. Not yours.

I would have hoped that we'd have a little more time before Hollywood

began to exploit the tragedy the way that the Bush administration has.

I guess I'm just an optimist in that way. Now, I haven't seen "United

93," but I've heard that, considering the subject matter, that film is

tasteful and subtle. "World Trade Center" looks to be as tasteful and

subtle as a "Paris Hilton is a whore" joke. This movie looks more

manipulative than any film ever. It's going to suck more than Paris

Hilton at a frat house. Not what I'd have expected from Oliver Stone.

I'd imagine an Oliver Stone film about 9/11 to involve missles and

Israel and vast government conspiracies. But I digress. Back to the Al

Gore show.

"An Inconvenient Truth" is a very good film. I pledge to talk about

this movie without ever mentioning "manbearpig," "super duper serial,"

or "we didn't listen!" It's approximately a film representation of

Gore's lectures that he's given worldwide about global warming, along

with some stuff from his childhood that I don't really care about. The

lecture is an effective series of graphs and charts showing mankind's

effect on the climate, along with explanations of worst case gloabal

warming scenarios. The film is captavating, and Al Gore himself is

funny and entertaining, which you know already unless you only listen

to the mainstream media. There's an excellent clip from "Futurama,"

which I believe Gore's daughter wrote for. There's a sad computer

animated clip of a doomed polar bear (at least he doesn't have a hurt

leg). Global warming will devastate the polar ice cap, which will

devastate the polar bear population, which will severely compromise

our nation's ability to produce Coca-Cola. There's a ton of footage of

Al Gore typing away on his computer. All in all, it's put together

like a good documentary should be.

So, what's wrong with it? The movie suffers from a couple of problems.

First of all, Gore doesn't go into nearly as much detail with

solutions to the problems as the problems themselves. He's especially

light on dealing with the economic implications of global warming

solutions. In addition, the film is completely preaching to the choir.

Because Gore is so prominent in the film, nobody to the right of Joe

Lieberman is going to listen, because, you know, that'd be bad. I'm

afraid that Al Gore's prominence might actually serve to make global

warming even more of a political issue, which it should by no means

be. Showing the film to the audience that's actually seeing it is like