Movie Log 2006 #46-49
this has been sitting in draft for a while:
Call Northside 777 - Jimmy Stewart is a crusading Chicago Times (later merged with the Sun) reporter trying to spring an alleged cop-killer. This was based on a true story, and its authenticity made it slow and less successful, I thought. But it was shot on location in Illinois, which was nice.

An Inconvenient Truth - Yeah, you know what it's about, and have already formed an opinion whether you've seen it or not. I think I'm more interested in your excuses/halfbaked theories for not wanting to see it. Odds are the film debunks most of them, so really "I'm already part of the choir" is the only valid excuse.

Who Killed the Electric Car? - yeah, yeah, Stonecutters, aren't you funny. This was a doc about the ill-fated EV-1, which GM launched, then killed despite the cars being wildly popular with the few people actually allowed to possess one. GM set the project up to fail from the start -- from naming the concept car the "Impact" to talking as many people as possible out of leasing them, to delaying shipments, to finally seizing all the cars (they were all leased) from people willing to drive them forever, and crushing them in the desert -- all the while lobbying to get California to roll back the emissions mandate which prompted the project. In the most telling scene, a mechanic shows you all the service parts in an internal combustion engine which were not part of an EV-1-- This dead golden goose was the reason dealerships wanted no part of the car. And meanwhile, Toyota and Honda ate Ford and GM's lunch on hybrids, while gas is in the $3 range. And no wonder the American automakers are in the crapper.

Choose Me Kirsti says long ago she read a Cosmo-ish article where a guy clamed this was his "can't miss" third-date video rental. Hmmm, yeah, I'm not seeing it; not any more. Must have been a long time ago, because it's very hard to get past the 80s-stylings. This was an interesting mess, anyway. Remove things like the unironic Flock of Seagulls hairdo and you're in Hal Hartley territory. It's been a long time since Keith Carradine -- hell, any Carradine -- could carry a romantic lead role, but he does. Rae Dawn Chong is awful; was she ever good in anything not involving cavewoman bodypaint? The poor man's Susan Sarandon, Lesley-Anne Warren, pulls off a final scene reminiscent of The Graduate that's all worth it.