Movie Review Friday: Revenge of the Electric Car

Escape to the movies with one of our Movie Review Friday selections. Each week we review a film with an environmental theme. Seen a good eco-flick lately? Send us a short review and look for it in the next Movie Review Friday. 

Revenge of the Electric Car (2011)

Limited screenings available; DVD coming soon

Director Chris Paine follows up his successful Who Killed the Electric Car? with a new movie, Revenge of the Electric Car, progressing the real-life story forward from 2006, when American manufacturers destroyed as many as 5,000 electric cars.

Less than five years later, companies began competing in a race to bring affordable electric cars to market. Revenge of the Electric Car profiles key people at Nissan, GM, and Tesla, plus an independent backyard tinkerer, giving insight into their process, problems, and products. We get a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at those who manufacture the cars that can change driving forever, and we come to see what drives them.

It’s a fast-paced film with amazingly candid moments and strong, well-structured narration, delivered with just the right emphasis by Tim Robbins. This is a sleek package of a documentary that pits human personality factors with serious facts, all while keeping us in suspense for the next chapter — the one that, at least in part, we consumers get to help decide.

--Pamela Biery