The Age of Stupid - review

Nothing promotes apathy quite like being preached at, so it’s great to find that the latest  ‘captivating’ and ‘powerful’ eco-documentary, The Age of Stupid, is actually a captivating and powerful piece of filmmaking as well as a call-to-arms to help the planet.

Taking a look at our current devil-may-care attitude to climate change from a fictional 2055, Pete Postlethwaite plays an archivist at the helm of a deserted futuristic museum (or maybe mausoleum would be more apt) of the human race, hoofing around on his own while the planet disintegrates around him. He delves into the video vaults to compile the case for the prosecution in a trial that pits our current destructive indifference against the environmental havoc that will ensue unless we get our heads out of our proverbial behinds and halt climate change.
 Pete’s ‘archive footage’ is all genuine, gleaned from recent news items or filmed by director Franny Armstrong and her crew, putting the climate change argument out there with real people. There’s the Indian businessman bringing low-cost air travel to the working classes despite the pollution; the Hurricane Katrina survivor who earned a living in the oil industry; and the Nigerian living with the after-effects of Shell Oil on her country.

It’s hard to decide whether the grim fate that awaits us if we don’t act is more shocking than the excuses we find not to do anything. Take Piers and Lisa, two renewable-energy champions who initially come across as middle-class do-gooders, but whose plight to install a wind farm in their rural village is opposed by their neighbours, blind to the fact that their beautiful country views can only be preserved by the odd wind turbine on the horizon. These people are unbelievable.

Interspersed with some natty animation, The Age of Stupid manages to blend the factual with the emotional without ever feeling too earnest or didactic. The only problem for the film could be that it may only reach the converted – the kind of audience who pay to see an independent eco-documentary – rather than the masses.

Anticipation. Al Gore taught us the climate change facts, but this mixture of fiction, documentary and animation looks far more interesting.
Enjoyment. Thoughtfully put together and well researched, it’s incredibly interesting as well as being, well, a bit terrifying.
In Retrospect. Very persuasive and engaging, let’s hope it reaches a big audience.