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EVERYTHING’S COOL
Directed by Daniel B. Gold & Judith Helfand.
Produced by Gold, Helfand, Chris Pilaro & Adam Wolfensohn.
Director of photography, Gold.
Animation by Jeremiah Dickey & Emily Hubley.
Edited by Toby Shimin & Jacob Steingroot.
Music by Stephen Thomas Cavit.
Released by City Lights Pictures.
USA. 89 min. Not Rated.

Directors Daniel B. Gold and Judith Helfand begin Everything’s Cool with nothing to prove. Global warming is no longer a matter of debate. Temperatures are rising. The ice caps are melting. And pretty soon, that lonely polar bear won’t be the only one lost at sea. What the filmmakers aren’t so sure about is why this apparent certainty remains controversial, so they set out to probe the gap between scientific fact and public opinion, and maybe even educate some misguided Americans along the way.

Spanning the past five incredibly formative years in environmental legislation and social outlook, the film follows several global warming gurus as their optimism about warning the world waxes and wanes. The long interviews with Ross Gelbspan, a Boston-based Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist who has become a popular authority on climate change through years of dogged research, anchors the otherwise jittery presentation. Being on the verge of retirement, his life serves as an emblem for global warming messengers at large – helplessly watching an unresponsive world (mostly America) standing on the precipice of disaster.

The film periodically catches up with Gelbspan and a handful of other environmental messiahs, including tree-hugging author Bill McKibben, spunky Weather Channel climatologist Heidi Cullen, and government employee-turned-whistle blower Rick Piltz, at their work, homes, conferences, and rallies, where they always seem ready with a moving monologue. Portrayed with such charm and sincerity, these green heroes are cast in sharp contrast to their villainous foes – the suited corporate mouthpieces on the flip side of the global warming debate. The film contends that if not for their daily campaign of misinformation, waged with shoddy facts and repeated appearances on FOX News, the country may have rattled the government for change many years ago.

Still, given the film’s playful tone – resembling an episode of Schoolhouse Rock! more than Al Gore’s didactic PowerPoint presentation An Inconvenient Truth – even the bad guys are funny and endearing. (Or maybe that has something to do with one of the lobbyists’ striking resemblance to John Hodgman, the lovable PC guy from Apple’s latest ad campaign.) Unfortunately, taking such a quirky approach to a serious topic makes for an entertaining diversion more than a call to arms. If you want to join the ranks of these noble climate crusaders, this documentary may be a spring board for activism, but more likely, it’s probably just a joyful sermon, preaching to the converted. Yana Litovsky
November 23, 2007