Carnage: Swallowing the Past

A rather novel way to try and push the vegan message. Instead of making a whiney documentary, comedian Simon Amstell made a jolly mockumentary. It's certainly a lot easier to sit through, though ultimately it does come down to the same thing, especially during the second half, when the comedy starts to dwindle.

The film imagines a near-distant future where everybody is vegan. The elderly are ashamed of their carnivore past, young people can't fathom that people used to kill and eat animals. A history of veganism takes us back and shows how the people of the past became more receptive to the idea, ultimately switching around completely.

I love deprecating comedy, but Amstell's attempts feel rather forced and not at all genuine. The first half has some decent jokes, but it becomes repetitive real fast and by the time the second half kicks off, the entertainment value has dropped below zero. That might've been the point, but since Amstell fails to make any original arguments, I didn't care for the second half at all. In the end, this felt a bit half-arsed, but bonus points for trying something new.