Directed by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein
(Not Rated)
***
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No Impact Man is a documentary for those with good environmental intentions but a weakness for Starbucks and Jimmy Choo shoes, said Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times. Striving to minimize his family’s “carbon footprint,” New York writer Colin Beavan dares to go a year without electricity, toilet paper, and most other modern luxuries. As propaganda, his saga “goes down easier than an all-natural, fiber-enriched peanut butter sandwich,” said John Anderson in Variety. Beavan’s wife stands in for the audience, providing humor and skepticism as she reluctantly trades her closetful of designer clothes for organically grown cotton togs. It’s clear then that the film is “about a couple, more than a movement.” Or maybe it’s just about a guy trying to get famous fast, said A.O. Scott in The New York Times. Thanks to films such as Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me, doing something—anything—crazy for a given time period is “now less a gimmick than a full-fledged” ticket to fame. With no new insights to offer, No Impact Man’s purpose is simply “to justify, and to raise awareness of,” Beavan himself.
