NR | 1h 15min | Documentary, Nature | 22 April 2023 (USA/Australia)
Try as it might to be a newfangled attempt to warn viewers to the perils of mankind’s collective assault on the global ecosystem, the gorgeously shot but narratively bereft documentary “River” is a narrative train wreck.
It achieves little beyond reminding general audiences why art house posturing and tree-hugging messaging will forever fail to impress those not already indoctrinated with pie-in-the-sky hoopla and unfounded fearmongering.
Baring more than a passing resemblance to the equally misguided “Watermark” (2017), co-director (along with first-timer Joseph Nizeti), Jennifer Peedom’s follow-up to her equally unimaginatively titled “Mountain,” “River” is all aesthetics, thoroughly lacking in anything resembling context….