Craig is temporarily a post-doctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who is looking for a permanent position. He spends most of his time balancing his overwhelming geekdom with normalcy so he can function in the real world. Luckily his wife likes his geekiness.
Peter Etnoyer is a Graduate Research Associate at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He studies deep corals and ocean fronts, and he loves to be on the water.
Kevin Zelnio is a Graduate Student Researcher at Penn State studying the ecology of hydrothermal vent and methane seep communities. He raises awareness of the plight of the spineless through folk music.
"Sizzle" is a global warming comedy, a film directed by Randy Olson of the Shifting Baselines blog.
Sizzle has been making the rounds between our respective research institutions here at Deep Sea News. Mine arrived about one month ago in a brightly colored envelope marked "your XXX photos have arrived!" Thanks, Kevin. Appreciate that.
So, I finally had a chance to sit down and watch the movie. It wasn't bad, really. I got a few good chuckles out of it. In the movie, Randy is literally trying to grasp the issue of an untenable problem - climate change. It becomes more of a farce with every character he comes in contact with, but he's so desperate to succeed he'll do anything for another interview. It's comedy, as advertised. My wife and I enjoyed this movie together late into the evening.
Some moments seemed "film school", but overall the cinematography was quite good. The story line moved forward swiftly, picking up after the first half hour. The problem for viewers is that Randy Olson makes himself the subject and the fool. This will divide people's opinion based on how much they like Randy. The more I watched the movie, the more I liked Randy, and I liked what he did with this picture. I liked the scientists very much. Touching, in a way.
Overall I give "Sizzle" 2.5 stars with a bonus half star for pulling off a feature length Roger and Me meets Living in Oblivion while walking with Inconvenient Truth kind of cinema moment. It made the pages of Nature and Variety. What more do you want? A Nobel Prize? Three stars.
I'll be forwarding this brightly colored package to Craig tomorrow. Watch the mailroom, McClain.
Comments
I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, Peter................
Posted by: Andrew | August 22, 2008 12:48 AM
Sizzle's a movie by Randy Olson of the Shifting Baselines blog, a "global warming comedy" ...
Posted by: Peter Etnoyer | August 22, 2008 6:55 AM
ahh...hasn't made it down under...yet..how about you offer a showing when you come to Wellington for the deep-sea corals conference?
Posted by: Andrew | August 22, 2008 11:57 PM
I can bring it along. Will there be a movie night? The one at the 2nd International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals was a big hit.
Posted by: Peter Etnoyer | August 23, 2008 7:20 AM