When it comes to believing in human-caused climate change, you either agree with the scientific consensus that global warming is a fact or you voted for Trump. All the well-intentioned documentaries in the Erde aren’t likely to change any minds, particularly one as dogmatic as this. Austrian documentarian Nikolaus Geyrhalter follows a formula as rigid as any comic book movie. The filmmaker is clearly more at home artfully filming rubble and mechanical earth movers than he is the humans who move mountains for a living. Geyrhalter positions his subjects center-frame, and rather than editing around his questions, he simply snips them out, clumsily interrupting the flow of thoughts with momentary cuts in and out of black. The interview segments are then intercut with lyrical bulldozer ballets, many of which are shot from on high. It’s a case of the meaningful point in question given a meaningless treatment. (2019) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.