A Glaring Emission
Before I begin reviewing “A Glaring Emission,” it’s important for me to explain what cap-and-trade is. Of course, I’m sure most of my readers are already aware of the concept, but here’s the basics: In the name of climate control, the government sets a limit at the amount of carbon emissions a company produces. Those that produce fewer emissions can sell their carbon credits to a company that produces more. This is important because the independently-produced satire “A Glaring Emission” deals with an American con artist who uses cap-and-trade to become a millionaire in England. That’s gonna be tough for fast-talking Brian Torro (Sean Dennison) however, as a fellow businessman named Plimpton (Joe Reed) finds out that Torro’s company is a sham. You see, Torro’s company doesn’t actually produce any CO2, so he’s selling his clients nothing. Now Plimpton is blackmailing him for $50 million or else he’ll send this to the authorities.
The film’s roughly 87 minutes details Torro’s situation with clarity, but as satire it isn’t very successful. It’s too broad in its setting up of comic situations for Torro’s dilemma to get into, and the characterizations aren’t overly subtle, either. Dennison’s Torro is the grossest caricature of a slimy businessman from what we’ve heard of about our crooked friends on Wall Street. He’s arrogant, self-centered, and brazenly honest in how he’s screwing his honest customers, and using his nerdy accountant Dillipeck (Mark Petersen) to get his ass out of the current sling it’s in. We’re supposed to like him I believe, but it’s hard to care for a crook who is about to get his just desserts (especially if you know what you know about how the economy got shat on). But Torro is just the most prominent of this film’s many cliched characters. There’s Torro’s bimbo girlfriend Cally (Caitlyn Musgrove); the obese, and food loving, Plimpton; the dimwitted secretary Chelsea; and then there’s “The Mouth of Britain” (Benjamin Daniele), a journalist whom we see on TV that is the most exaggerated Brit character this side of Monty Python (that last part isn’t a compliment). But the actors are only doing their job; the blame ultimately lies in the writing (by Andrew Preston and director Aaron Scott Moorhead), which has quirky ideas (such as Torro addressing the audience, and the use of post-its throughout) but falls flat dramatically and comically. I’m also skeptical that the filmmakers intended to make me glad to see Torro in handcuffs at the end. I did enjoy that ending, however. Karma dude. Karma.
