Weekend Forecast: 9 and No Impact Man
By Craig Kennedy - September 10th, 2009; 12:01 am
If you live in New York or Los Angeles, take a look at the documentary No Impact Man. It’s funny, a little bit heart warming and it imparts a lot of basic information about being environmentally responsible without being preachy. As far as the wide releases go, we’re putting all of our hope in the first movie on our list: Shane Acker’s 9.
- 9. Delgo notwithstanding, I’m always on the lookout for animation that doesn’t come from one of the major studios and isn’t aimed primarily at a family audience. Shane Acker has expanded his terrific short film about a group of “stitchpunk” beings making their way in a hostile, post-apocalyptic world and he’s assembled the voice talents of Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, Martin Landau, Christopher Plummer, John C. Reilly and Crispin Glover to help him out. Reviews so far are a bit mixed, but this is the kind of thing I like to give every benefit of a doubt.
- Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself. If he had help being awful, would Tyler Perry still slap his name all over every one of his movies?
- Sorority Row. It’s I Know What You Did Last Semester at Theta-Pi when a sorority prank misfires killing one of the sisters. After graduation, the co-ed’s coldly calculated plan to sweep the accident under the carpet goes haywire when a killer turns up and starts bumping off bimbos.
- Whiteout. Based on Greg Rucka’s graphic novel, Whiteout tells the story of a US Marshal (Kate Beckinsale) with only 3 days to find a murderer in Antarctica before winter arrives and the land is plunged into darkness for 6 months. It’s a potentially nifty premise and Beckinsale should be a bigger star than she is, but Dominic Sena’s track record as a director (Kalifornia, Swordfish, Gone in 60 Seconds) isn’t much to get excited about.
Opening in limited release:
- No Impact Man. (LA and NY) This documentary is quite simply one of my favorite movies of the year. In order to research a new book, Colin Beavan sets out to live a life with zero environmental impact for one year and he drags his upper-middle class Manhattan wife and child along with him. Bit by bit Beavan strips away the material things we take for granted until eventually the family is only eating food grown locally and they’re not even using electricity. It’s a crazy plan but Colin’s wife Michelle keeps the story grounded. She’s a reluctant environmentalist and in this way she acts as the audience surrogate. Through her eyes we can see how hard it is to significantly change a lifestyle, but also how rewarding it can be. What raises No Impact Man above the usual message movie is that it’s also something of a family drama. Colin’s quest puts the family under enormous stress and it’s questionable whether he’ll succeed in his ultimate mission, but at the same time it’s an adventure that draws them closer together. Highly recommended.
- Walt & El Grupo. It’s 1941 and the United States is worried about the spread of fascism in South America. What does the government do? They send Walt Disney and a team of animators to Brazil, Chile, Argentina and other countries on a 10-week goodwill mission. Why? I don’t know, but here’s a documentary about it.
- Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. Originally pegged for a May release, it’s actually difficult to see how this one didn’t go right to DVD. Peter Hyams, who previously remade the classic film noir Narrow Margin, takes on the last film Fritz Lang made in the United States. Michael Douglas and Amber Tamblyn star in the story of a journalist who sets himself up for a murder in order to take down an inept DA. It’s easy to imagine how such an unlikely premise could be put over in a more innocent time, but today it just sounds ridiculous.
Opening in New York:
- Crude. I don’t like to be too critical of documentaries that are well intended (See: The Cove), but at the same time a documentary that doesn’t do its job shouldn’t get a free pass just because its heart is in the right place. Crude follows a group of Ecuadorians and a US lawyer as they attempt to hold U.S. oil behemoth Chevron responsible in a court of law for decades of environmental damage caused in the Amazon jungle. Taken purely as a fly-on-the-wall account of actual events, the film isn’t especially revelatory as the case devolves into a series of unproven allegations and plausible denial before turning into a celebrity guilt-fest hosted by Sting’s wife Trudie Styler. Some important questions are raised about the responsibility of huge multinational corporations having their way in third world countries, but they’re never really answered. Worse, the Ecuadorian government is possibly the biggest offender in the whole mess and they’re completely let off the hook.
Holding down musical sponsorship duties this week are Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood singing Sand.
Filed under: Weekend Forecast
Nice Weekend Forecast, even if only a middling forecast.
Couldn’t agree with you more on Crude. Saw it at the LRFF in May and was getting so mad at the filmmakers I couldn’t even make it to the end of the film before walking out. What a waste of an interesting and important issue. If I were a PR person for a giant oil conglomerate, I’d be doing a happy dance at how easy it would be to refute all their “documentary” evidence and claims. Really lazy journalism by people who are too wrapped up in the cause to step back and analyze how it best needs to be approached. And the footage that does work–the poor children being killed by this stuff, the oil oozing from the ground, the unspeakably awful environmental conditions forced upon the villagers–only makes the lack of responsible filmmaking in the rest of it all the more galling. These people matter, but this film does not.
I’m excited to someday get to see No Impact Man solely on the strength of Craig’s enthusiasm. If I recall correctly, this was one you weren’t expecting to like nearly so well, right? Pleasant surprises are great.
We’ll probably see 9. I can’t believe it’s only 80 minutes. I’ve probably seen the two-minute trailer 40+ times already in the theater since it’s been playing for months before EVERYTHING (gawd I’m sick of it already). It seems bizarre that I could conceivably spend more time watching the trailer than the entire film. I’m curious and want to like it.
Neat song. I’d never heard it before. :)
Wow, really about Crude? I was looking forward to that one, but should have known that activist documentaries are rarely good anymore.
Let me get this straight with Whiteout – a U.S. Marshal is stationed in Antarctica? Uh?
I’d like to check out 9 this weekend, but also have World’s Greatest Dad, Baader Meinhof, and Captain Abu Raed. Also, has anybody heard of Fifty Dead Men Walking starring Jim Sturgess? Also opens for a week.
One of the co-directors of No Impact Man is from here and she’ll be present for a screening next Wednesday. Tragically I can’t make that, but the next night, Thursday, I am planning to go to a discussion with Colin Beavan himself. I’d rather see the film before hearing him speak than the other way around, but looks like it will be backwards this time. I won’t be able to see the movie for like three more weeks.
Otherwise this weekend I’m celebrating the start of the NFL season – Go Vikings!
The concept behind Whiteout is that *someone* needs to enforce international law on the continent, otherwise the outposts there would be lawless territories. It’s an interesting setting for a book and Rucka’s graphic novel isn’t bad, but I didn’t find the ending all that interesting a payoff and the trailers for the movie version imply they’ve made some changes.
As for Crude, Chevron doesn’t seem to be doing a happy dance, they’re fighting back.
I’ve got movies options a go-go this weekend. On top of 9 and It Might Get Loud, both of which I’d like to see, The September Issue also opened. I’ll get to that one. But more importantly, Big Fan and Lorna’s Silence are both showing at the indies and I’d like to see each. I might put 9 on the back burner and check out those before they disappear.
Thanks to those of you who have been keeping the comments lively without my attention. I’m back now.
As for Crude, don’t mine and JB’s words for it Daniel, I noticed this morning that The Hollywood Reporter gave it quite a glowing review.
In retrospect, it’s possible that my expectations of the film were misguided. I was expecting an activist film…one that would really put the screws to Chevron, but really I think the filmmakers seemed more content to just document the case as it unfolded for better or for worse.
Chevron’s big victory in the case was getting it out of the US courts and tried in Ecuador instead where they likely knew it would get swallowed in a morass of corruption and incompetence (as the NY Times article Joel points to suggests it has), but the documentary never really focuses on that.
I don’t know. The point is, don’t be discouraged just because it didn’t work for me.
No Impact Man on the other hand is great. I did a poor job of saying why up there, but it was. What’s strange is the resistance to it by environmentalists and non-environmentalists alike. People hate this guy. Even in the doc itself you see some of it. Life long environmentalists seem to resent this guy’s stunt becoming a cause celebre, while people threatened by environmentalism are taking great joys in pointing out how unrealistic it all is.
I haven’t read all of it yet, but even before the film came out there was a whole long piece in the New Yorker sort of tearing him down. It’s frustrating because all of the criticisms utterly fail to see the point of the film. The point is, Beavan is just a regular dope like most of us…a little bit better off than many with his Manhattan apartment, beautiful girl and successful wife, but he’s still just a guy who wants to see if he can walk the walk as well as talk the talk. He’s not preaching to the unconverted or lecturing anyone, he’s engaging in a very interesting experiment.
I’ve seen a number of environmentally themed docs lately and this one more than any other got me to honestly and realistically think about how I live my life and how I could change to not only improve the environment, but improve my own life.
I guess I should save all this for the review. :)
Not a fan of Kalifornia, Craig? Neither am I, but it seems to have its boosters. I don’t get it. Saw it years ago, and can’t remember a thing about it.
Too bad about Crude, but you’re right to review the film that is rather than the film that wants to be. However, I do have to give Mrs. Sting some points for producing Moon.
Gotta love Nancy and Lee. No, I mean it — you gotta. If you don’t…do!
(Now I’m gonna be humming Some Velvet Morning all afternoon.)
I bet you are a big fan of BLUE VELVET though right Frank?
Ain’t that a brilliant deduction?! Ha!
Your extremely effusive recommendation of NO IMPACT MAN does have me inching close to a weekend commitment, but I’ll have to negotiate it with a planned screening of ODD MAN OUT at the Film Forum, and another film you didn’t highlight here, A BIG GAY MUSICAL, which Lucille, Broadway Bob and I already have tickets for. That should be interesting!
Sorry to hear the report on CRUDE here, as it’s a NY exclusive as well.
Like Craig says, don’t take our word on Crude as anything other than two folks’ opinions. The beginning scenes were quite powerful and the alleged injustices are both believable and egregious. But after that it just failed for me. Other people have given it glowing reviews. I saw it with four people. Of us, I had the most extremely negative reaction, two people were interested by disappointed by it, and one person liked it a lot.
I’m afraid Frank that with Crude I may have reviewed the movie I wanted it to be…if that makes any sense.
Kalifornia…yeah I don’t know. I don’t hate it or anything, but until I wrote this post, I hadn’t really thought a lot about it lately.
And yes, it’s required that you love Nancy and Lee.
Sam, in reading some of the reviews of No Impact Man, everyone seems to have seen a different review from what I saw. AO Scott got that it was as much a family drama as it was an environmental movie, but I think he short changes the environmental message by a longshot.
I’m so on my own page with documentaries though, I won’t be shocked if everyone here who sees it ends up hating it.
“Like Craig says, don’t take our word on Crude as anything other than two folks’ opinions. The beginning scenes were quite powerful and the alleged injustices are both believable and egregious.”
Indeed Jenny, indeed. I saw CRUDE last night as the second part of a double-feature, and thought it the best documentary of 2009 so far. Mr. Belinger previously helmed BROTHER’S KEEPER, one of my favorite docs of all-time, and he has a brilliant narrative sense and the the talent to display some unforgettable images. While I agree that it opened superbly, for me it never wavered after that. It boils you blood, and there’s nothing dubious either.