No Impact Man
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No Impact Man
Thought-provoking documentary charting a year-long experiment by a New York City couple, author Colin Beavan and his journalist wife Michelle Conlin, during which they gradually give up every aspect of their lifestyle that could cause a negative environmental effect, a formidable list of sacrifices that eventually includes all motorized transport, even elevators, all food not grown locally, disposable diapers for their toddler daughter, air conditioning, heating and electric lights. While their undertaking obviously carries conscientiousness to an extreme unlikely to be imitated by many, as captured by filmmakers Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein, the pioneering experience does have its potentially inspiring rewards in the form of increased exercise, improved diet and intensified family life, though the incidental portrait of a real-life marriage mixes mutual commitment with sometimes misguided reproductive values. Some rough and crude language, a half-dozen crass terms, birth control references. A-III -- adults. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America. 2009
No Impact Man (Full Review)
“Reduce, reuse, recycle.” That’s the green-minded mantra of author Colin Beavan, the central, and eponymous, figure in the thought-provoking documentary “No Impact Man” (Oscilloscope Pictures).
Filmmakers Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein chart a bold year-long experiment by the New York City resident and his journalist wife Michelle Conlin during which they gradually give up every aspect of their lifestyle could cause a negative environmental effect.
This formidable list of sacrifices eventually includes all motorized transport, even the elevator to their ninth floor apartment, all food not grown within 250 miles, disposable diapers for their toddler daughter, air conditioning, heating and electric lights.
These deprivations prove especially challenging for Conlin, who acknowledges in an early scene her addiction both to shopping and to reality television. With the purchase of new clothes or shoes verboten and the family’s large-screen TV carted off to storage, Conlin -- who has also had to give up the coffee-guzzling that gets her through her hectic days at the offices of “BusinessWeek” magazine – begins to show the strain.
Beavan, by contrast, cheerily embarks on visits to an upstate dairy farm and a Gotham community garden tended by an aging hippie whose radical ideas have not mellowed with time. He also plans a back-to-the-land family vacation at another farm, despite the reservations of the nature-shunning Conlin.
While the couple’s undertaking obviously carries conscientiousness to an extreme unlikely to be imitated by many, the pioneering experience does have its potentially inspiring rewards. Thanks to increased exercise and a better diet, Conlin’s health improves and her pre-diabetic condition is cured. The absence of electronic entertainment leads to intensified social interaction with friends and more time to concentrate on family life.
For Conlin that includes trying to convince Beavan that they should have another child, a discussion that reveals that, although they display a sound sense of mutual commitment, both share widespread but misguided reproductive values, as witness their explicitly referenced use of artificial birth control.
Catholic viewers committed to the moral teaching of the Magisterium will hardly miss the irony involved here, since the millions of condoms sold worldwide every year -- not to mention the packaging used with other contraceptive products -- have environmental consequences far different from those which would result from an increased reliance on responsibly practiced natural, and nature-friendly, family planning.
The film contains some rough and crude language, a half-dozen crass terms and birth control references. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.
Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic
merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating,
the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief
synopsis of the movie.
The classifications are as follows:
- A-I -- general patronage;
- A-II -- adults and adolescents;
- A-III -- adults;
- A-IV**
- L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
- O -- morally offensive.
** Discontinued classification. All archived movies that were originally in the A-IV category are now classified as L.