FrackNation

Somewhat rumpled and slightly portly Irish journalist Phelim McAleer can't help but strike viewers as filmmaker Michael Moore's anti-progressive counterpart. Taking the position that fracking—the extraction of oil from shale buried beneath the earth's surface—has been given a bad reputation by environmentalists, Hollywood elites, and a bunch of attention-seeking cranks, McAleer travels around the American Northeast looking into claims (made by, among others, the director of the award-winning documentary Gasland) that the communities where fracking is taking place are physically devastated. What he finds, instead, are frustrated property owners whose lucrative contracts with oil companies to drill on their land have been stymied by litigation. What's more, McAleer challenges charges (made in Gasland and elsewhere) that fracking poisons groundwater; or that one can set fire to the chemicals pouring from a kitchen faucet. McAleer tries to make the case that an entire sub-industry in the oil business is being targeted by people who don't know how genuinely safe fracking can be. But he also ignores the possibility that many environmentalists are also reacting to a bigger picture; i.e., that fracking is a license to continue our unfettered dependence on fossil fuels for another half-century. Likely to stir debate, this should be considered a strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include deleted scenes (19 min.), a Kickstarter promo reel (3 min.), and TV spots. Bottom line: a decent extras package for an uneven documentary.] (T. Keogh)