Director Chris Paine takes his film crew behind the closed doors of Nissan, GM, and the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors to chronicle the story of the global resurgence of electric cars.
The resulting puff-piece is a warning to crusading filmmakers about what happens after they’ve beaten the system.
The fact that Paine got unprecedented behind-the-scenes access over a three-year period to the notoriously secretive GM and it’s even more notorious boss Bob Lutz confirms that the corporation wants its second shot at green technology heavily publicised, even if, under Paine’s direction, it’s a warts-and-all story. Otherwise, Paine’s film, narrated by Tim Robbins, speeds along as smoothly as the now defunct EV1.
There were high hopes of a warts-and-all follow-up to Paine's first film exposing the big guns of automotive, but it hasn't materialised. The director's treatment is cosmetic and uninvolving.
Won’t change the world, but it’s a valuable record of people who might.
Enjoyable.
It's an oddly compelling watch, even if you know nothing about cars.
The problem is the film tells us early on we’ll all be forsaking our gas guzzlers in the near future, prompting the question what has the movie got left to say? The answer is not much.
All of them are cautious but all of them seem to think that the rise of the electric car is inevitable which renders this documentary a surprisingly optimistic progress report.
It's an unexciting story, told in an excited manner.
Whether audiences will agree with the filmmaker’s view, no one can deny that Paine has made another captivating and interesting film about this remarkable vehicle which has been brought back from the dead.
Revenge of the Electric Car is a heartwarming tale
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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