Intelligent Life

Ecological documentaries are ten a penny, but 'Intelligent Life' still manages to set a bold new standard in patronising, self-satisfied high-horsemanship. Essentially 'Koyaanisqatsi' for dummies, the film consists of lingering digital video shots of highways and slaughterhouses, forests and plains, wind turbines and solar panels, all interspersed with context-free, monotonously intoned, staggeringly obvious thoughts-for-the-day courtesy of great thinkers from Albert Einstein to, erm, Ayn Rand. The excruciating new-age muzak soundtrack, supposedly created by a panel of 'Grammy-nominated artists', actually sounds like the ramblings of a bored four-year-old with a Casio keyboard. A brief and rather lovely montage of stock satellite images aside, this is mind-numbing visual wallpaper for the dreamcatcher crowd.