No Impact Man

The mediocre documentary No Impact Man follows writer Colin Beavan as he and his Manhattan-based family attempt to live an entire year without negatively impacting the environment in any way. Beavan and his much more likable wife Michelle cut out gas-powered transport, cleaning products, disposable diapers, toilet paper, TV and consumption of any kind, gradually phasing out even electricity as part of a book project that Beavan spends the year promoting. It’s a noble (if naive) experiment in “living your ideals,” but if you’re already predisposed to think of environmentalists as prattling, self-righteous pricks who want us all to live like hobos, Beavan and No Impact Man aren’t likely to change your mind. The viewer is left to decide whether Beavan is a curiosity or a crusader, a symptom of clueless bourgeois withdrawal or a cure for it.