The End of Suburbia (movie review)

This film is somewhat paradoxical in that it sounds the death knell for a particular lifestyle made famous over the last seventy years or so by its practitioners, but without much mourning.

The city planners all decry urban sprawl as a disgraceful waste, have no special sentimentality towards low density single story strip malls consisting mostly of parking lots.

"If this was the American Dream, we're glad to be waking up" seems to be more of the message, even if the "awake state" (after taking the Red Pill with some OJ) proves sobering.

The film features a number of talking heads sounding the alarm at various levels, including Kenneth Deffeyes.

On the "scary talk" rating scale, you would think global warming talk ala Al Gore would be scarier than peak oil talk.

However I think the peak oil people are somewhat more effective at provoking a reality-based response, which is maybe not saying much given how the media response to date has consisted mostly of idle daydreaming about an impossible tomorrow (what we might call "bad philosophy" in some circles).

I watched this as a double feature with Over the Hedge, which likely colors my take.