Movie Review: The Age of Stupid

The Age of Stupid is a 90-minute cinema-documentary about climate change, set in the future. It features an archivist living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off, The Usual Suspects) stars as the archivist in this eco-documentary by Director Franny Armstrong (McLibel, Drowned Out) and Oscar-winning Producer John Battsek (One Day In September, Live Forever, In the Shadow of the Moon).

Runaway climate change has ravaged the planet by 2055. Pete plays the founder of The Global Archive, a storage facility located in the (now melted) Arctic, preserving all of humanity's achievements in the hope that the planet might one day be habitable again. Or that intelligent life may arrive and make use of all that we’ve achieved. He pulls together clips of “archive” news and documentary from 1950->2008 to build a message showing what went wrong and why.

The Archivist focuses on six human stories:

- Alvin Duvernay, is a paleontologist helping Shell find more oil off the coast of New Orleans. He also rescued more than 100 people after Hurricane Katrina, which, by 2055, is well known as one of the first “major climate change events”.

- Jeh Wadia in Mumbai aims to start-up a new low-cost airline and gets a million Indians flying.

- Layefa Malemi lives in absolute poverty in a small village in Nigeria from which Shell extracts tens of millions of dollars worth of oil every week. She dreams of becoming a doctor, but must fish in the oil-infested waters for four years to raise the funds.

- Jamila Bayyoud, aged 8, is an Iraqi refugee living on the streets of Jordan after her home was destroyed - and father killed - during the US-led invasion of 2003. She’s trying to help her elder brother make it across the border to safety.

- Piers Guy is a windfarm developer from Cornwall fighting the NIMBYs of Middle England.

- 82-year-old French mountain guide Fernand Pareau has witnessed his beloved Alpine glaciers melt by 150 meters.

The Age of Stupid premiered in London, March 15th 2009.

Above is a trailer of The Age of Stupid. The eco-documentary was given an eight-minute feature on Channel 4 TV news in the U.K. in February 2008 (see below).

Comments: 12

Quintessence *. Apr 11, 2009, 9:28am EDT

Must watch that!

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Aunt Boni H. Apr 11, 2009, 10:18am EDT

When will it come to the U.S.? Every man, woman, and child should see it.

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Dano C. Apr 12, 2009, 1:55am EDT

Thanks for the review. I hadn't heard of this film. Many still deny the evidence of the warming of the glaciers, which is the most telling sign I can think of these days.

There's a book that I may read on what would happen if suddenly the human race left the earth. I wonder how long it would take for the climate's carbon to dissipate. I guess the earth would have to deal with the aftermath of every nuclear power plant melting down in a series of Chyrnobls (sp?).

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Chris W. Apr 12, 2009, 9:45am EDT

Sam, just wait until the denial crowd wake up to this post. You will be inundated with highly intellectual responses, for example: "oooh, the sky is falling!", or "don't worry dude, God's in charge".

for my part, you get a ten.

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Sam Carana Apr 12, 2009, 7:53pm EDT

Thanks all for commenting.
Cheers! Sam Carana

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Dana W. Apr 12, 2009, 10:10pm EDT

Thank you so very much for posting to the New Stuff groups! Here to view comment and rate.

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Kim Simpson Apr 13, 2009, 11:21pm EDT

Thanks for sharing Sam, this is a really important issue - this will be out in DVD format at some point in the future? Sounds like it is just released March 15 . . .

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Sam Carana Apr 14, 2009, 3:30am EDT

Kim: "this will be out in DVD format at some point in the future?"

The Age of Stupid is still screening in cinemas in the UK and will be released on DVD in the U.K. on July 13, 2009. It can be pre-ordered at Amazon.co.uk for £9.98, which includes free delivery in the UK (region 2 DVD, PAL format).

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Morgan W. Apr 17, 2009, 3:28pm EDT

Very interesting - thanks for the trailer and review. Looking forward to seeing the whole thing.

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Dave K. Apr 20, 2009, 8:06am EDT

Interesting. I'm going to have to pick up the DVD when it becomes available. Looks like the success in the UK will determine if it will be released in cinemas across other countries.

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