Examined Life

In this follow-up to her previous feature, Zizek! (VL-4/06), which offered a platform for ebullient Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek to expound at length, documentarian Astra Taylor provides a forum for Zizek and other academics to air their views to an audience beyond university colleagues and students—albeit in a much abbreviated format. Zizek and seven others—Cornel West, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Hardt, and Judith Butler—each have 10 minutes to explore a subject while traveling through relevant locales. Zizek, for instance, focuses on ecological destruction while picking through a garbage dump, Singer talks about the ethics of consumption in a largely impoverished world while sauntering down Fifth Avenue, and Appiah discourses on cosmopolitanism in a crowded airport (apparently the filmmaker could think of no suitable backdrop for West, whose assigned topic is “truth” but instead offers random thoughts while sitting in the backseat of a car driving through Manhattan). Individually the segments are interesting, but the time limits dictate that none of the speakers can probe much beyond the surface (Nussbaum's critique of the contract theory of society, for instance, is given short shrift). So while Taylor's film may pique a viewer's interest in various issues, the sort of extended Platonic examination the title suggests is missing here. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include two additional segments (with Simon Critchley on death and Colin McGinn on perception); Q&A sessions with Taylor, West, Appiah, and Ronell after screenings in New York; and bios. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a somewhat disappointing doc.] (F. Swietek)