Collapse (2009)

I know I am writing this review too early, having just seen the film and there's a lot to process in it, but I feel like writing about it. Michal Ruppert is an ex-Los Angeles cop, largely freelance/niche writer, who has a background vaguely in the intelligence community. He's in what appears to be a basement or a warehouse, and he talks for about 82 minutes. He's surprisingly riveting, and presents a scarily plausible scenario for the collapse of industrialized civilization.

I think its safe to say, with the rapid pace of change, and a goodly number of our long time societal bills coming due, the 21st century is going to be one of tremendous change, probably even more then the 20th. Ruppert believes he knows where things are headed and he makes his argument tremendously well. Though he has critics that deride him as a crazy conspiracy theorist, the central point of his thesis is terrifyingly true, most of our stuff comes from oil, and we've probably already reached the peak of its production, so the trip down the other end of the bell curve could be a decidedly unpleasant one.

I think the staging is interesting, 'the bunker'. Director Chris Smith occasionally asks questions, but seems to shy away from taking a definite stand on what he's hearing, you can't quite tell if he believes or is just humoring the man. The global collapse of which Mike Ruppert goes on at length, is almost hauntingly mirrored by what seems to be the collapse of Mike Ruppert the person. He's kind of haggard, smokes, is over the hill, lives in a rented property with his dogs, and though its never explicitly stated in the film, seems to have never married or had children. He seems lonely, obsessed, yet also reasoned and believable. He's a Rorschach, I can't quite tell what I'm looking at. I do however find that I feel like showing this film to other people, so what does that say about me? Grade: B+