An Inconvenient Truth was really good– totally not preachy, and not overly technical. Al Gore comes across as 1200% more personable than he ever did on the campaign trail, and even cracks a joke at his own expense, saying of himself “I used to be the country’s next president.” The movie even includes a clip from Matt Groening’s TV show Futurama.

It seems to be wildly popular here in New York (probably no surprise) –my friend Eric and I showed up 15 minutes before showtime and had to sit in the front row. This was over a week after the movie had opened here!

One aspect that was somwhat hokey was a short passage recapping Gore’s 2000 defeat (what does that have to do with Global Warming, again?) but that was only a minute or two of the total film. It makes me wonder if Al is thinking of running again (maybe in 2012?)

Despite the “scariest movie of the summer” trailer, the movie itself is surprisingly upbeat, listing a number of things that can already be done to stop the Earth from heating up, and making the point that there is already enough technology on hand to get the job done– it’s merely a question of political willpower.