The Plan
Originally I thought about writing a response to the recent NY Times ding. If you missed it, it’s here. In particular, the recurring idea that the film fails to provide “The Plan.” The Plan to save humanity from, among other things “the polar ice caps melting.” But in counterpointing I realized I’d already written a comment to the same effect about the negative reaction the film garnered from some San Francisco Film Festival attendees (this post.) This movie doesn’t provide the Plan. In fact, for those with eyes to see, it is a rolling critique of Plans. Everything from
- Wendell Berry’s poem which opens, threads and closes the film is an entire critique of “a world made entirely according to plan“
- Prologue’s opening title sequence of a blueprint expanding into a shattered stained-glass aerial which eventually seems to grow into a sickened, decaying organism
- To the closing sequences which return the viewers again to the ruins of a man’s ambitions which are shown in a montage of abandoned plans/development maps
It seems to me that there are more than enough environmental documentaries that proffer variations of a plan. In fact, this trailer seems to suggest You are in fact the hero who will save The Planet. But suppose humanity devices a Plan to save itself from any and all environmental threats. Who is going to save Humanity from Humanity? To bend Jacques Ellul, suicide is at the heart of the system. Like the grizzled old sickle-wielding blandishment says “There’s no way out of it…”
The film takes a leap of faithlessness in man and by extension, our plans. And in doing so, it aspires to do what the Boston Globe’s Ty Burr declares it cannot. Namely, play to the so-called “unconverted.” Those unconverted dispute most of the environmentalist movement’s premises and discard their data. The data can and will be debated until Kingdom come. In my opinion, those who like the film and those who don’t reveal very different views of man.
But hey, it’s cool. It’s a privilege to have a movie in theaters and to have done very well with most critics. But for these few negative reviews, we’d have no way to see things like reader reviews that disagree and make their own case for why they liked the movie. In the case of the NY Times, 4 of 5 reader reviews so far disputed the review and pointed out how flippant and beneath the paper the tone was. Though a small sample point, it seems like it’s hopeful for the film’s overall reception. More respond than don’t, more advocate than denigrate, etc.
Okay, I digress. We now return you to the failing financial system…
Sponsored by the American Dream and subsidized by a credit-fueled speculative bubble of building and buying.
“The Unforeseen” opens in Boston’s Kendall Square
Landmark’s Kendall Square is now showing The Unforeseen. To buy tickets and check showtimes, click here.
Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir reviews the film
Andrew O’Hehir of Beyond the Multiplex fame recent wrote a full review of the film.
One of the most extraordinary accomplishments in recent American nonfiction filmmaking. It hits hard as to facts, and opens its eyes to inexpressible mysteries. It strikes a clear moral and philosophical stance, and then — as part of that philosophical stance, actually — reveals its villain as a tragic and sympathetic figure.
Nice to have something like this to counter the recent surprisingly glib NY Times writeup… (More on that soon)
Read the rest of Salon’s review here.
TV Guide gives film 4 of 4 Stars
A number of new reviews for you… starting with:
The title makes Laura Dunn’s documentary about suburban sprawl sound like a horror movie, and in a very real way it is: Dunn’s elegant, full-length debut presents a frightening and powerful argument against the kind of reckless, profit-driven land development that not only threatens natural resources, but life itself.
Click here for the full review.
Entertainment Weekly reviews the film
They gave it a B in a very brief review that, like a surprising many other number of sites, manages to spell “The Unforeseen” as “The Unforseeen.”
Add The Unforeseen to the catalog of artfully produced nonfiction films that show how humans are screwing up the planet.
Slant Magazine gives 3.5 of our 4 Stars
Another nice review:
Like the central angelic figures in Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire, The Unforeseen evokes the point of view of a divine being observing our species’ modern history—only here they’re mourning what they’ve borne witness to.
Full article here.
The Onion AV Club gives Movie B+
The Onion gave the film a nice review.
Although the parts of The Unforeseen dealing with the anti-development movement are pure go-team agitprop, Dunn lends the movie a lyrical cast by combining aerial shots of the transformed countryside with the voice of Wendell Berry, reading from his poem “Sabbaths.” With cinematography by Richard Linklater stalwart Lee Daniel, and executive production by Robert Redford and Terrence Malick, the movie wavers between Sundance-friendly issue film and spiritual reverie.
You can read the full review here.
Review of “The Unforeseen” by IndieWIRE’s Michael Tully
Michael’s really helped create awareness for the movie in prior posts to IndieWIRE’s Blogs. Now he’s written a formal writeup for Muze, Inc. which is very kind…
Must-See Cinema: THE UNFORESEENLaura Dunn’s The Unforeseen opens at Cinema Village tomorrow. I give it Boredom at its Boredest’s highest recommendation. I’ve spoken to people who find the film heavy-handed and flowery and whatever else, but for me, The Unforeseen is one of the most resonant films that I’ve ever seen. I watched the trailer the other day before The Counterfeiters (though well executed, it felt like much of that movie was taken from Holocaust Drama 101, making it a perfectly worthy Oscar winner), and even the trailer of Dunn’s majestic elegy to nature and hope had me on the verge of tears. Here’s the review I wrote for Muze, Inc.:
Laura Dunn’s feature-length directorial debut is a profoundly stirring, visually stunning, and emotionally overpowering work of epic beauty. Sharing a kinship with the film’s executive producer, Terrence Malick, Dunn’s lyrical non-fiction poem reaches levels of transcendence not often encountered in cinema. THE UNFORESEEN recounts the embittered battle that emerged in the latter half of the 20th Century between real estate developer Gary Bradley and the residents of Austin, Texas. Bradley’s plan to develop yet another subdivision that would disturb the beautiful natural swimming hole, Barton Springs, created a swell of communal emotion that challenged big business and development in a manner heretofore unseen. As Dunn tells her personal tale, using archival footage, gorgeous graphic effects, incredibly lush photography (courtesy of Lee Daniel), and present-day interviews with the formative players (Bradley, former governor Ann Richards, and many others), THE UNFORESEEN begins to speak on a much grander scale, challenging viewers to confront similar situations that continue to plague their own cities and neighborhoods. But where Dunn succeeds and exposes her true humanity is in her portrait of Bradley, a reviled figure whom most opponents wouldn’t take the time to try to understand. It is this dismissal of anger and bitterness in favor of understanding and hope that makes THE UNFORESEEN such a transformative viewing experience and elevates it to greatness.
Click here to see his blog and, if the spirit moves you, send him money.
Film Journal International calls it “A rapturous nightmare.”
Maybe it’s the despairer in me, but that contends for favorite three-word review. Here are excerpts from Chris Barsanti’s review…
A documentary that looks like an art-house film, The Unforeseen wields its impressive cinematography and poetic narrative form (Wendell Berry provides appropriately ruminative narration) to make a strong case that the country as a whole is cutting itself off from the natural world with frightening speed. The camera glides through endless construction sites and hovers over the octopus-armed suburban developments with a cool dread. All the while, these montages of a deadening, choking future are contrasted with crystalline underwater images. The spirit of Terrence Malick—who serves as executive producer here—is everywhere in the film, from its dreamy evocation of nature’s small miracles to the humane treatment of those who in normal circumstances would be viewed as villains.
One of the great documentaries of our time, The Unforeseen is a rapturous nightmare.
Read the full review here.
IndieWIRE reviews “The Unforeseen”
Some highlights from the new Indiewire review.
Due to the onslaught of environmental documentaries that prioritize urgency over intelligence, Laura Dunn’s “The Unforeseen,” an inquisitive, elegant rendering of the battle between land development and dwindling natural resources in Austin, might get lost in the shuffle. And what a shame that would be, for Dunn’s refreshingly thorough look at the encroachment of capital on untouched land is smart enough not to treat its subject as a horror show. The film is more sobered than alarming, yet it’s hardly defeatist. An impressionist’s portrait of contemporary American economic life, “The Unforeseen” is for nature both a paean and an elegy, and for contemporary American nonfiction a challenge, in both scope and aesthetic…
…Indeed there are occasional shots of glistening cobwebs, slow-motion underwater swimmers, and sunlight streaming through fog-shrouded trees that will inevitably recall Malick’s work, yet Dunn’s film isn’t a simple retreat into nature, nor is it a reducible portrait of greed (an emotional outburst from Bradley at the end is captured with true sympathy, even awe). Instead it’s a document for posterity, diagnosing our moment with refreshing pragmatism. As merciless and propulsive as rushing water, Dunn’s film is constantly moving forward, all the way into its stunning final images, which map out our country’s soul with mournful deliberation.
Full review here.