There are a lot of environmentally themed documentaries floating around out there, but rarely do they present themselves on such a cinematically engaging level as Kevin McMahon’s Waterlife. While similar films might end up buried under their own information, McMahon manages to balance the facts with engaging filmmaking, never forgetting the most important ingredient: storytelling.

I really love how documentary filmmakers have recently began to embrace the idea of genre filmmaking. If Man on Wire is the non-fiction equivalent of a heist film and The Cove an espionage-spy-thriller, Kevin McMahon’s Waterlife is an environmental road trip movie. The film focuses on the Great Lakes, detailing the natural journey of water as it flows through the world’s last great supply of fresh water, examining all of the troubles it meets along it’s way towards the St.Lawrence River and eventually, the Atlantic Ocean. What makes the film work so well is the fact that we learn about the environmental issues by proxy of the people who live around them. There’s a great scene where a posse of motor boats speed down a river, fishing nets in hand, on the hunt for the over-populated jumping Japanese Carp. A local celebration that is built entirely on the foreign species destructive invasion of the lakes delicate ecosystem. There’s also some great use of CG throughout the film, zooming in on microscopic droplets of water or bacteria passing through rivers; an almost alien look at the building blocks of life that’s visually reminiscent of the opening title sequence of David Fincher’s Fight Club. Another thing worth noting; the soundtrack is amazing. Not only does it include one of my favourite pieces of music of all time, Brian Eno’s ‘An Ending (Ascent)’ — actually, there were a couple of Brian Eno pieces, some of which were originally written for Al Reinert’s Nasa doc ‘For All Mankind’, a film that possibly shares some themes — but it also makes good use of some Philip Glass and Sigur Ros. I fully admit I’m a sucker from the melding of inspiring images and beautiful music, but isn’t that what cinema is all about? 4.5/5