OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER. SEPTEMBER 27, 2006

And All That
Might Have Been

ANDREW KURJATA
NEWS EDITOR

Think back-- way back. The year
is 2000. Boy bands are still dominat-
ing the pop charts. If anything, a blog
is something you wear boots to avoid
stepping in. And the United States
doesn’t have a president.

As strange as it may seem in today's
global war on terrorism, this isn't really
a problem. Sure, people are paying at-
tention to the lack of leadership, but
more as a joke than a matter of real
concern. After all, it's the end of hist-
ory-- there's nothing to worry about. It
doesn't matter who wins, former Vice-
President Al Gore or Republican-heir
George W, Bush, because according
to everyone who analyzes these sorts
of things, they are essentially the same
person. The debates are boring, with
neither one emerging as particularly
charismatic.

My, how things change.

An Inconvenient Truth, the first film
to be played by Cinema CNC this sea-
son, is billed as a documentary about
global warming starring Al Gore, butin
reality it plays more like a concert film.
Like any basic band documentary, we
see clips of Gore in taxis, hotel rooms,
and airports. There are memories from
childhood and talk about why he got
into his career. And, of course, the meat
of the film is Gore's performance-- pre-
senting charts, graphs, and videos on
climate change to audiences of college
students and concerned citizens.

Which is all way more interesting
than it actually sounds, In contrast to
the robot who prematurely conceded
the presidency back in the day, Gore
emerges here as a dynamic, humorous,
and passionate speaker. One imagines
(or would like to imagine) that if this
movie had come out in, say, 1999, Gore
would be president and the world
would be a very different place.

For one thing, he manages to paint
global warming as both a moral and
realpolitick issue, something that Bush
has had success doing with the war
on terrorism. Morally, Gore says, it is

- and entire ecosystems in the process,

aCameron and Kristy

lanet, wiping out glaciers, animals,
g

We have a duty to our ancestors and

: =
our descendants to be wise stewards.

But he also shows that not actively
changing our consumption habits will
have a devastating effect on us, on our
lives. For example, he shows that there
are clear economic benefits to be had
from regulating emissions standards
on cars. More effectively (and far scari-
er), he illustrates the fact that melting
glaciers will do more than make it so
polar bears don't have a home. It will
result in coastal cities from Shanghai
to New York being placed under water,
followed by a refugee problem like no
other in history.

As seen by these examples, this is a
movie about possibilities, both what
might be and what might have’ been.
What if Gore had won back in 2000?
Would there be a war on terrotism,
or would it be a war on temperature?
Would Albertan oil be seen as the way
of the future, or a way of the past? How
many of us would be driving hybrid
cars?

But these are just hypothetical. More

' important is the question of, “what are

we going to do now?” As Gore makes
clear, this can be fixed, but only if we
act now. And it’s not just up to the
politicians and big business (actually,
things will be far worse if we leave it
up to politicians and big business). It
is something that has to be done on a
personal level. It's a gauntlet that has
been thrown down many times before,

from David Suzuki to Greenpeace to:

Rick Mercer.
This is where the concert film pres-

“athe first film to be played
by Cinema CNC this sea-
son... plays more like a con-
cert film.’

entation is a major strength. It’s not a
film that you are meant to sit back and
passively absorb. It’s made as if Gore is
in the room, talking to you, telling you
that you need to do something. It takes
the responsibility off of shady polit-
ical figures and oil-rich gas barons and
says “no, it’s you. You can change this.’I
suppose the best way to measure the
effectiveness of a film like this one, one
with a manifesto, is how well does it
reach the audience? Does it go in one
ear and out the other, or does it make
them realize that maybe it's time to
stop blaming car companies and take
some responsibility? The hope is that
every individual person will take a look
at their own life, the way they use heat
and gasoline and electricity, and think
to themselves, “is it worth it?” Far worse
than watching this movie and seeing
the 2000 presidential election as the
turning point where it all went wrong
would be to watch this movie 50 years
in the future and see our inability to
act on its message as the turning point
where it all went really wrong.

I take the bus, now.

CAMERON AND KRISTY
STAFF WRITERS

What the Boyfriend
says:

The film's title has so many layers
of meaning it’s a work of art. A movie
about getting accepted to university
while at the same time a commentary
on being ‘accepted’ despite your own
personal character flaws? Cannes
really missed out on this one.

Snarky jabs aside; Accepted is the
sort of movie where if you just sit
back, relax, and shut your brain off,
you might think the movie is good.
It’s nothing to the fault of the actors.
Playing in a teen comedy is no stretch

of thespian skill, Sean William Scott

_ only needed to grin like an ape and

cuss randomly to find his way into
our hearts as Stifler. The problem
with this movie is that on one end
you have an impossible situation, and
on the other your emotional connec-

tion is supposedly on the fate of the

student body of South Harmon, a
body of people we barely meet, and

when we do we want to stomp. Per- ,

haps I'm alone but Id be happy if
everyone who wasn't a leading role in
the show died in a fire.

So to run you through it, Accepted
is about “B” Gaines who, through
slacking and a huge indifference to
consequences, finds that he has been
denied from every college he has ap-
plied, In an effort not to dash his
parents dreams he has fabricated a
college to fool them. The joke's on“B”
who finds he has fooled a lot more
people than just his relatives. What
results is a college occupied by soci-

CAMERON AND KRISTY

Cameron and Kristy share their varying tastes in movies.

ety'’s rejects, with some hot women

thrown in. Yet a few random, and too

short, clips: of women showing off
P: g

their goods are not enough.

“Snarky jabs aside; Ac-

cepted is the sort of movie
where if you just sit back,
relax, and shut your brain

off, you might think the

“4 . yp
movie is good.

There are laughs, and if you want to
pick up a copy to rent when it comes
out then I won't say anything. The
movie just fails to provide us with a
substantial connection to the char-
acters, and even the final speech at
the end provoked nothing but head
shaking from me. Everyone from the
movie may have won something in
the end, but what has the audience
won? For me it was the knowledge
that nothing has yet to surpass the
awesomeness of Eurotrip,

Two and a half stars out of 5.

What the Girlfriend
Says:

Accepted is one of those movies
that fit nicely into the category of
‘teen comedy, except this time the
creators try to broaden their audi-
ence by reaching out to college stu-
dents as well. Not a very good idea.
Unless you are having one of those
nights where you just spent six to
eight hours studying and your brain
is fried, you might want to watch
something that doesn't look like it
was written overnight.

This PG 13 movie follows tHe ac-
tions of Bartleby (played by Justin
Long) after he is declined by numer-

ous college. Along with some of his

wacky friends, Bartleby decides to
open up his own college. The group
is amazingly able to rent out an old
psychiatric institute and in a matter
of a couple of days they renovate and
clean the old dump and make it look
exactly like a real school. If these kids
are dumb enough to not be accepted
by any schools, I highly doubt their
ability to rent out a huge building,
tackle plumbing and electrical prob-
lems, redecorate, and convince their
parents it's a real school.

The biggest flaw in this movie is
the lack of propet characterization.
The characters that are actually
introduced in this film (and aren't
just there for background noise) suf-
fer from some sort of split personal-
ity disorder. Bartleby spends half of
the movie being clumsy, awkward,
and geeky. Out of nowhere, his char-
acter changes and he turns into the
smooth, witty guy that gets the girl
in the end.

Another character flaw can be seen
in Monica (Blake Lively). Monica
is a stuck up popular snob at the
beginning of the movie who insults
Bartleby by not inviting him to her
party. Just when Bartelby thinks she
is about to invite him, she asks him
to mow her lawn instead. By the end
of the movie, however, she complete-
ly steps off of her high horse and be-
comes a sweet arid caring female who
falls in love with Bartleby.

This movie has so many faults in
both plot lines and characterization
that it made its viewing rather pain-
ful. Although meant to be a comedy,
it contained only two or three good
moments.

I give this movie two stars out of

five due-to lack of, well, everything.