trailer break: ‘The Age of Stupid’

I love the idea of this film, as the official site describes it:

Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man 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?

But I’m not sure if this trailer adequately conveys how the film is going to accomplish this, at least in any way that isn’t preaching to the choir. Not that that’s not often a problem with documentaries these days, which isn’t an issue with the films themselves but with the fact that, in the absence of wide, mainstream audiences for them, they’re inevitably reaching viewers already interested in their perspectives.

Like, there’s the bit in the trailer about the one-rupee airfare, which could be seen as a good thing for a lot of people. I’m guessing that the film will take the tact that the planet cannot afford, ecologically speaking, to extend the luxury of air travel to more people, and in fact we should be dramatically reducing air travel as we know it today. But you already have to know that background to get that from the trailer.

Might be a good film. It’s not a good trailer, though.

The Age of Stupid is now playing in the U.K.; no U.S. release date has been announced yet.