An Inconvenient Truth

As I sit at my computer on this fine April 20^th (cough, cough), preparing to review Al Gore’s fine documentary/Power Point presentation (docupoint?) An Inconvenient Truth, it strikes me that most people have already either seen the film or they’ve been so inundated with hype they wouldn’t add it to their Netflix queue if you paid them. That’s why I’m not going to tell you why it’s your responsibility as a good Americal liberal to go out and rent it (you actually already agreed to go see it when you registered as a Democrat – it’s kind of like Jury Duty). Instead, I’ll simply point out the questions and concerns I was left with after watching the film, so that those of you who have already seen the film will have something to read too.

Laura’s Observations Regarding An Inconvenient Truth:

-Man, he’s really, really bitter about losing to George W. Bush! He uses the exact same level of solemnity when they show the aftermaths of September 11^th and Hurricane Katrina as when he loses to GW. Appropriate? Biased?

-What’s with the forklift? Why’s he getting up on the forklift? Doesn’t he know he looks like a complete tool?

-When he talks about becoming disenchanted with school and traveling around the world (he doesn’t specifically mention Amsterdam, but come on), all I heard was “I did lots of acid.” In fact, there are times in this movie where I think he’s still on acid.

-I’m sorry, but the Melissa Etheridge song has to go. It’s a shitty song. I don’t care how inspiring she is or how much she made fun of her own song at the Oscars, and I don’t even care that she won an Oscar. Ugh.

-We tried to watch the additional material (an update, rather), and it was really really long. Fascinating, yes. But long.

-Where’s Tipper in all this? Are she and Al having problems? That would be too bad.

Conclusion:

Poor nerdy Al Gore. It’s like he’s a rock star, but a really lame one. He travels around the country giving his sad little slide show, and there are all these shots of him leaning his head against the window in like tour buses and airplanes, and it’s like they’re trying to be like Almost Famous, like he’s about to break out into “Tiny Dancer” any minute. There’s totally some Spinal Tap in there too, like when he’s wandering around confused backstage, and finally emerges triumphantly. But then instead of rocking, he just talks a lot. And he does a good job, I’m not saying I was bored, but he could liven it up just a tad more. Hire an intern off Craigslist and get them to make an animated film. You could have Shrek 4 in one semester if you get a few NYU seniors! Ah, bless the college internship: it’s like slavery and child labor all wrapped into one.