2007 SXSW SPECIAL SCREENINGS DOCUMENTARY FEATURE! Last year “An Inconvenient Truth” hit theaters and was a huge success at film festivals. For those who were under a rock and haven’t heard of that film, it featured Al Gore and focuses on global warming and the future that awaits us if we keep up our terrible anti-environmental habits. The film was so honest it was scary, not just because of Al Gore telling us we are screwed but because it was a harsh reality that we are now faced with. While I think that being honest is important while tackling this topic, scare tactics aren’t a great approach. That is where “Everything’s Cool” steps in, providing a viable argument from both sides in a quirky, witty fashion that makes learning about our screw-ups, well, kind of enjoyable.
It may’ve taken Dennis Quaid in a summer global warming flick, Hurricane Katrina, and Al Gore to make Americans aware of global warming, but the facts are out there and in our face now, despite the initial thoughts of global warming as a hoax. These particular filmmakers were ahead of this recent craze of global warming awareness, however, since they make it clear that they started shooting the film in 2003, for whatever points that gets them.
The film has a quirky take to it which is implemented via cartoons and stock footage along with the interviews to really sell the point. The film follows many different people on both sides of the argument from 2003 to 2006 and how their lives are affected by global warming. All the interviewees are quite entertaining, my favorite person in the film being a guy who works at the Canyons Ski Resort in Park City, Utah. He is an odd ball in the sense that he has made it his priority to turn his 1975 Mercedes Diesel into a bio-diesel vehicle. Now granted he has no experience with converting a car and it takes him multiple tries to get even close to getting the vegetable oil right, but he nevertheless presses on.
Even though I personally have a bleak view on our future, I still enjoy watching this documentary. To be honest, I am not one to debate global warming one way or another, mainly because I feel it is too late to do something that will really change us for the better, as maybe we can slow it down but we have destroyed a bit too much of the planet. Still, I really liked this film more than I did “An Inconvenient Truth,” as “Everything’s Cool” made the subject matter into a palatable form that actually made it interesting instead of depressing.
