Fuel (2008)

Director: Joshua Tickell

Writer: Johnny O'Hara

Composers: Ryan Michael Demaree, Edgar Rothermich

Starring: Joshua Tickell, Richard Branson, Larry David, Sheryl Crow, Larry Hagman, Woody Harrelson, Robert Kennedy Jr., Willie Nelson, Julia Roberts, Neil Young

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The world is addicted to oil... It's time for an intervention.

Plot: Director Josh Tickell takes us along for his 11 year journey around the world to find solutions to America's addiction to oil. A shrinking economy, a failing auto industry, rampant unemployment, an out-of-control national debt, and an insatiable demand for energy weigh heavily on all of us. Fuel shows us the way out of the mess we're in by explaining how to replace every drop of oil we now use, while creating green jobs and keeping our money here at home. The film never dwells on the negative, but instead shows us the easy solutions already within our reach.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

After watching THE BIG FIX (2012) last week I thought it'd be fun to watch Tickell's earlier picture.  You get some history about diesel fuel and about Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the engine.  That was fascinating.  Then there's biofuels and how well they were doing until suddenly they got a wave of bad press.  It sounded like there was more to the story that was being told but that's alright, I'll roll with it.  It's really a compilation of ways we can get a way from oil and move over to alternative energy sources.  While Tickell makes a passionate plea, it's not overly preachy in that cheesy way.  He calmly and without malice presents these issues in an easily digestible and entertaining manner that doesn't leave you feeling like you're an asshole for not adopting these ideas but rather a sense of we should do them because it's a better way to go.