The 11th Hour.

The 11th Hour "may linger too long on visions of floods and war and pestilence; it may reduce great speakers to bland lecturers by confining them all to the same side of a black-and-blue backdrop; you may wish somebody like Errol Morris had gotten involved to give the documentary a better dramatic arc," concedes Judith Lewis in the LA Weekly. "But such shortcomings are worth your patience, because The 11th Hour is ultimately a triumph of redemptive ideas that [co-producer and narrator Leonardo] DiCaprio - God bless his celebrity - may finally succeed in transporting from the environmental fringe to the mainstream moviegoing audience. If it's possible to leave The 11th Hour quaking in your Earth Shoes over the quickening pace of planetary destruction, it's also possible to hold firm to the notion that we have a way out of this mess. It isn't an easy route, and we may not always like the ride. But as The 11th Hour persuades you in the end, we choose it or die."

Updated through 8/20.

"Arguably, you won't see a more important movie this year than The 11th Hour," adds Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "Sure, there will be eye-rolling from predictable quarters: Hollywood liberals! Preaching at us from their hilltop-mansion cocaine parties about how we should recycle our toilet water! First of all, the movie's nothing like that. Second of all, if those thoughts enter your mind it's because Dick Cheney put them there."

"A cautionary eco-doc so earnest and moth-eaten it should properly be seen on filmstrip during fourth-period social studies, The 11th Hour might as well have borrowed the title of Lisa Simpson's lecture about the pollution of Lake Springfield: 'An Irritating Truth,'" counters Mike D'Angelo in the Voice.

"From the opening montage of natural disasters and panic-stricken survivors, to its lengthy, ominous discussions about mass extinction, The 11th Hour often employs blunt scare tactics as its primary mode of persuasion," writes Nick Schager at Slant. "Nonetheless, even if occasionally issuing threats like a street corner kook waving around an apocalypse-is-coming placard, it also makes a mighty strong argument that there's plenty to fear from mankind's environmental recklessness."

"[U]nlike other doom-and-gloom envirodocs that engulf viewers with guilt about how we are tearing apart our only planet, this movie is supposed to demonstrate that it's not too late to shift old habits," writes Rachel Stern, introducing her San Francisco Bay Guardian profile of the sisters who've written and directed the film, Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners.

"The 11th Hour, filled with talking heads and talking points, has some value as a primer on the subject, and is not at all hysterical but for the converted will be about as interesting as remembering to eat your greens and veggies at suppertime," writes Robert Cashill.

"Climate change awareness is the height of Hollywood fashion, earning comparison with past causes that saw stars rally in support of the Second World War, protest against the Vietnam War and draw attention to the plight of HIV/Aids sufferers," writes David Smith in the Guardian. "Driving a hybrid Toyota Prius is now so de rigueur that it was recently reported Hollywood has a nine-month waiting list for them. But the town is hiding an inconvenient truth: last year an academic study found that the film and television industry comes second only to oil refineries in fuelling the smog above the Hollywood hills."

Earlier: "Cannes. The 11th Hour."

Updates, 8/18: "It is tempting, in a summer filled with bland franchise flicks that make only half-assed attempts at political relevancy (The Bourne Ultimatum) or are just half-assed in general (Pirates III), to call the current flurry of documentaries (No End in Sight, Manda Bala, The Devil Came on Horseback) the new disaster films," writes Michelle Orange at the Reeler. "This summer's highest profile ecocatastromentary is The 11th Hour, and despite an impressive array of talking heads and Leonardo DiCaprio (in his best Hemingway moustache and a series of crisp button-downs), as a disaster film in this cracking new mold, it's strictly B-movie material."

"[E]ssential viewing," declares Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "It may not change your life, but it may inspire you to recycle that old slogan-button your folks pinned on their dashikis back in the day: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.... It is our astonishing capacity for hope that distinguishes The 11th Hour and that speaks so powerfully, in part because it is this all-too-human quality that may finally force us to fight the good fight against the damage we have done and continue to do."

Tasha Robinson at the AV Club: "As if providing the overbearing yang to [Al] Gore's overly refined yin, The 11th Hour arrives as Inconvenient Truth's evil twin: a film that's so restlessly, numbingly cinematic that it can barely communicate its message."

"It is unabashedly a documentary of talking heads, but it works," writes Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times. Also, sure, it looks like DiCaprio's movie, "But just as the documentary, which critics have either deemed too gloomy or too hopeful, underscores how everyone and everything is linked and concludes it will take a collective shift of individual determination to save the planet, the project proved a collaboration among a network of allies just as committed to the cause," reports Rose Apodaca.

"Those who've been paying attention the last few years won't hear anything radically new, though the honor roll of experts interview in the film - sages like David Suzuki and unexpected wonks like former CIA director James Woosley - deliver bite-size, sometimes haunting bits of wisdom," writes Bryan Walsh for Time.

"Among recent documentaries questioning the status quo (The Corporation, When the Levees Broke, Why We Fight, An Inconvenient Truth, Sicko), The 11th Hour takes the most far-reaching point of view and connects issues into larger patterns, culminating in a truly global call for change," writes Jürgen Fauth.

Update, 8/20: "What shines through 11th Hour overwhelmingly is the warmth, charisma, caring and unbelievable wisdom of the diverse collection of talking heads in the film, and that goes for DiCaprio as well," writes Alternet executive editor Don Hazen. And what can he do now? "One thing DiCaprio could try is pushing for a presidential debate dedicated to environmental issues, following up on the recent Democratic debates focusing on labor and gay and lesbian issues."

Posted by dwhudson at August 16, 2007 2:42 PM