Of all film genres, documentaries have the greatest amount of creative leeway. There are no structural guidelines regarding content, narrative style, or presentation and, thus, no rules with which to adhere: Almost anything goes. No one working within this genre knows these things better than Austrian director Nikolaus Geyrhalter.
To say Geyrhalter’s movies are an “acquired taste” would be a gargantuan understatement. Since 1992, he’s made 15 features, yet only four of them (“Elsewhere,” Our Daily Bread,” “Abendland,” and “Homo Sapiens”) have dedicated entries on more than one online movie-inclusive databases.
Same Old Wheelhouse
As with most of Geyrhalter’s previous efforts, he trots out the main tools from his wheelhouse: stationary imagery, and next to no dialogue, backing score, or narration. Some might say the last three aren’t tools at all, which is kind of true, yet I consider them to be negative asset gimmicks.There have been many other movies from different filmmakers that utilize one of the above Geyrhalter calling cards, but when all four are tossed into the mix the result is a beyond-static, pretentious, naval-gazing snooze-fest.
As tedious and austere as this approach may be, it could have worked had Geyrhalter chosen to showcase the majesty of nature: the great plains of Africa, Germany’s Black Forest, the White Cliffs of Dover, Montana’s Big Sky, and the like. There are thousands of places on our planet that beautifully display God’s handiwork, destinations that wouldn’t need any kind of extraneous embellishment.
Globetrotting
Spanning the globe, Geyrhalter and his crew visit Switzerland, Albania, Nepal, Maldives, Austria, Greece, and the state of Nevada underscoring that trash should be of universal concern and, on that point, he’s right. Nobody likes garbage, yet “Matter” (with minor exceptions) only addresses a single facet of the issue, namely moving it from one place to another, often at a snail’s pace.We get the idea the movie is going nowhere fast with its first “chapter,” a flat, seemingly empty field directly adjacent to high-rise dwellings somewhere in Austria. Two guys in hard hats watch as an earth-moving machine digs a 5-foot by 10-foot by 5-foot rectangular hole revealing what they believe to be a 50-year-old landfill containing discarded aerosol cans, rubber tires, and other non-biodegradable objects.
First, we get the impression that the garbage is going to be relocated, but that’s not the case. When done, everything is placed back in the hole and recovered again. Just exactly was the point of this exercise?
In Maldives, Albania, and Greece, there are multiple scenes showing volunteers at various beaches and underwater collecting trash, bagging it, and taking it to … wait for it … more landfills. While not on a shoreline, a similar chapter taking place in Nepal ends in the same place: a landfill.
The one chapter that shows a degree of ingenuity, resourcefulness, and forward-thinking takes place in Switzerland. Starting atop a village that doubles as a ski resort, we follow collected waste on a journey that includes dump trucks headed down steep slopes while strapped below ski-lift cars. The contents don’t end up in a landfill and the final destination might surprise you.
The penultimate chapter finds Geyrhalter and company back in Austria where refuse of kinds (including furniture and mattresses) is first pulverized, then incinerated and recycled into something that again, might surprise you.
The final scene takes place at the annual Burning Man Festival near Black Rock City, Nevada, where revelers attend outdoor Rave parties while donned in cosplay outfits and could easily be part of background crowds in a “Mad Max” flick. Spouting a bunch of leftover ‘60s hippie idealism, the attendees and staff also observe a “leave no trace” practice where they clean up so efficiently when done, no one can tell they were ever there.
There was enough going on during this segment to warrant a feature of its own and it is the only portion of the movie that both entertains and informs. As good as it is, it was too little too late and couldn’t save a movie that only partially speaks to its own choir without offering much in the way of ecological solutions.
The message isn’t what’s wrong here—it’s the messenger.
