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Saturday, September 26, 2009

Film No Impact Man

Posted by Eli Sanders on Sat, Sep 26, 2009 at 2:33 PM

You gotta give Colin Beavan credit: he’s quite nice to look at, and he is, without a doubt, the most sincerest do-gooder who has ever lived an absurdly privileged life on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Also, he's responsible for generating this classic Gawker headline: “No Toilet Paper But Plenty of Ass.”

Why no toilet paper? Because Beavin, in search of a lighter conscience, a blog audience, and a book deal (not necessarily in that order) foreswore toilet paper and all kinds of other miracles of modern convenience—electricity, machine-washed clothes, icy cold beverages, elevators, taxi cabs—and then told the world about how it made him and his adorable family feel. Why plenty of ass? Because his wife stayed with him anyway.

Can you believe it? Yes, you can. Especially when you learn that she’s a journalist for Business Week who totally gets that this total immersion environmentalist bullshit is a highly sellable product, and that she really loves reality TV—which is what this documentary about their year “off the grid” in Manhattan ends up being.

What redeems a project that could otherwise have been highly annoying is that Beavin doesn’t try to hide the fact that he’s a privileged dilettante. He owns it, with the same unvarnished sincerity he brings to his newfound environmentalism, and this allows the audience to set aside most of its eye-rolling and cheer him on. (But not his wife on her Razor, scooting down the sidewalk to work every day so as not to emit any bad emissions—that shit was just ridiculous.)

Is the moral of the story that people in Manhattan have to pull ridiculous stunts to remind themselves that they live on the same planet as the rest of us? Or that we could all give up our ice-makers and install a solar panel on the roof to power the laptop if we would only try? Or merely that at this point Americans will go to any length to create and consume some new form of reality programming? Watch and learn.

Showtimes? HERE.

Comments (11) RSS

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I am shocked that people could use no toilet paper.

Like the Greeks, Romans, Japanese, and other civilizations did ... for millenia. With sponges on sticks.

That said, Sounders ftw (1-0 right now)

Posted by Will in Seattle

on September 26, 2009 at 4:45 PM

Some stupid man toy for an alpha female who pays all the bills anyway gives up elevators and lives "off the grid"...yeah, I'll bet he had to walk the whole 3 blocks to Gristedes...oh, and if he is "off the grid" why is he on someone's blog...in an article delivered by electrons generated by a coal burning power plan?

Posted by Black Eyed Carrots on September 26, 2009 at 6:20 PM

One day Dan Savage will champion the TOTO Washlet for cleaning up santorum and the world will be a better place. Stop living in the dark ages people, use a machine to clean up your nasty business.

Posted by Westlake, son! on September 26, 2009 at 6:28 PM

I think this guy has already been ripped from the headlines into a Law & Order episode.

Posted by josh

on September 26, 2009 at 7:39 PM

Theoretically, the power generated by things like elevator motors could be re-used, thus making them "green". I was reading about that somewhere.

Posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay

on September 26, 2009 at 8:26 PM

It makes me gag that people will pay attention to privileged, upper-middle-income people who play at "have not" games for a limited time, yet ignore the poor and underprivileged in their own neighborhoods. The bottom 80% doesn't count because they don't have lunch with their agents at Le Bernardin.

Posted by Keister Button on September 26, 2009 at 9:23 PM

I read a story today by a teenager who was homeless for a day--homeless for a DAY--to see what it was like. He didn't like it. But luckily, it was only for a day.

What crap.

Posted by sarah68 on September 26, 2009 at 11:09 PM

A bidet would be preferable, but that uses precious water resources.

Posted by Pat on September 27, 2009 at 1:02 AM

Just watching S1E2 of "Community" on Hulu...this line:

"We could have a candlelight vigil like lesbians on the news".

(a) Gayphobic :(
(b) Gayfunny!

Expert opinion?

Posted by Cheddar Cheese on September 27, 2009 at 2:06 AM

And let's not forget the following facts from the New Yorker article on this particular 'eco-warrior':

* he has an infant child ands so her formula was stored in the next door neighbour's fridge so that they could turn their own fridge off,

* his wife made sure that she blogged from the Starbucks down the road so that she didn't need to use electricity at home

* their apartment building was so over heated in winter that they were able to keep warm based on the ambient heating from the neighbors. In fact they had to open their windows to maintain a decent temperature.

He was also not willing to engage in discussions with his neighbors about how to do things to the whole building to make it more environmentally friendly, as he didn't think that this would have as much impact as his individual crusade.

I think that the actual impact he was after was on his ability to generate the book and TV deal that he did.

In Australia we would call him what he is, a wanker.

Posted by Malcolm in Sydney on September 27, 2009 at 5:17 PM