'The Age of Stupid'

It could be the end of the world as we know it, at least according to U.K. filmmaker Franny Armstrong's inventive documentary "The Age of Stupid," which adds a futuristic, sci-fi twist to the vital issue of climate change. Think "An Inconvenient Truth" but with a personality, numerous ones actually, as Armstrong hops the globe interviewing an intriguing cross section of folks -- a Hurricane Katrina victim, a British wind farm developer, an aspiring Nigerian doctor, an elderly French mountain guide, a wealthy Indian entrepreneur and an 8-year-old Iraq war refugee -- whose lives have all been affected by some aspect of the global warming phenomenon. Their stories vividly highlight the various tentacles of the climate change problem and, in some cases, its potential solutions.

At the same time, actor Pete Postlethwaite plays a fictional "last man on Earth" circa 2055, who's holed up in an arctic storage facility looking back, via a giant transparent touch screen, at archival clips and footage of Armstrong's real-people profiles, in an attempt to reconcile how ignoring climate change led to the Earth's "total devastation." Though this narrative device can feel a bit gimmicky and grandiose, it also provides a visual and emotional power that drives home this absorbing film's crucial cautionary message.