MOVIE REVIEW: Collapse at PUFF Movie House

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MOVIE REVIEW: Collapse at PUFF Movie House

POSTED: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 10:01 PM

Filed Under: Movies Movie Review

Michael Ruppert begins Chris Smith's documentary by quoting Thomas Jefferson: Every generation needs a new revolution.

And we're long overdue.

Directed by Yes Men helmer Smith, who took cues from Errol Morris' Fog of War, Collapse profiles former LAPD narcotics officer-turned-whistle blower Ruppert. Or rather, it profiles his ideas and prognostications, starting with peak oil, which ripples into other areas of life, like food and transportation. His ideas are startling and in the end, it all seems to come down to a "We're fucked" conclusion.

Smith found Ruppert while researching a screenplay about the CIA's involvement in drug smuggling and figured he was interesting enough to construct an entire documentary around. He's right, to a certain degree. And Smith is smart about trying to justify the subject of his film: Ruppert is asked in various ways to display his credentials so he's not just some crackpot in front of a camera.

Ruppert can hold his own personally, as well. At first he may seem cold discussing society's demise, but when he openly breaks down at the thought of the end of humanity, he's immediately grounded as a subject. And when Ruppert begins to tell stories about how he warned the subscribers of his newsletter, From the Wilderness, of the impending financial collapse two years before it happened, only to see his offices trashed and all of his computers smashed less than two weeks later, you begin to believe him. Get sentimental about what you've got now, because everything is going to look like The Road, eventually.

But that's the problem: It's just him. There's no one to counter Ruppert. His monologue, of sorts, is only broken up by file footage. While Ruppert could simply write his naysayers off as government stooges or mainstream media hacks, it would still lend him an extra degree of credibility if he could take them down.

See the Jan.-Feb. screening schedule of the PUFF Movie House or check citypaper.net/repfilm every Thursday.

Collapse (2009, U.S., 82 min.), Fri.-Sat, Jan. 22-23, 12:10, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 10:30 p.m.; Sun., Jan 24, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 10:30 p.m., $5, PUFF Movie House, Media Bureau, 725 N. Fourth St., 215-592-1242.

Whistle Blower Hotline

Posted 2010-03-11 04:54:22

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Posted by Molly Eichel @ 10:01 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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