Though it bears the irresistible horror movie-tinged title, Revenge of the Electric Car is a whole lot more complicated than a mere second-act success story. That's a relief, given that Who Killed The Electric Car? director Chris Paine is returning to the world of forward-thinking automakers at a time when making any kind of car in America, much less an expensive and technologically complicated one, is damn near impossible. Breezing over information about the vehicle's pros and cons to present a story of four different men investing in electric car technology on vastly different scales, Revenge of the Electric Car is less polemic than an exploration of triumph over adversity-- yes, even when three of the four main subjects are billionaires. That's how convincing a movie this is.
Filming over the course of nearly four years, Paine's film kicks off in the halcyon days of 2007, when GM was making significant investments in the electric car with the Chevy Volt, Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk was first manufacturing the all-electric Tesla Roadster, and even lone hobbyists like Greg "Gadget" Abbott were putting together fully electric BMWs in their garages. The most surprising figure in this electric car Renaissance is surely GM's Bob Lutz, previously quoted as claiming "global warming is a crock of shit," an old-school Detroit executive credited with the existence of gas-guzzling Ford Explorer. As he nears retirement at GM Lutz has reversed course to heavily promote the development of the Volt; anyone who leaves electric cars to the interest of hippies and hipsters should be required to see Lutz, cigar in hand, worrying about ash getting into the crannies of the Volt's dashboard design.
Most documentaries would be lucky to have one character as colorful as Lutz, but Revenge of the Electric Car boasts three more. Musk is a constantly overwhelmed self-made billionaire sinking more fortune and time than he has into Tesla, a California company that's more in the business of selling "cool" than actual, functional cars. "Gadget" is almost ludicrously optimistic and skilled, even when an accident forces him and his wife into a workspace that's literally so awful the homeless won't live there. And Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan spearheading an aggressive electric car effort with the Leaf, is practically the Darth Vader of the auto industry-- fearless, inscrutable, slightly terrifying, and probably better at his job than anybody else.
Paine gets remarkable access to all of these subjects, though Ghosn remains deliberately aloof, and it's hard to miss the fact that Paine is only allowed inside GM because he's highlighting a product they want to promote. Though Paine acknowledges this early on-- "Which one of us is getting played?"--the movie never really deals with the fact that it's essentially an advertisement for these cars, especially given the triumphant happy ending. But so long as moviegoers don't mind seeing the value of electric cars and these companies taken at face value, Revenge of the Electric Car makes for a fleet and captivating documentary that's almost more about the characters it introduces than the title technology.
