Robert Kenner’s “Merchants Of Doubt” would be a fine comedy if it weren’t a documentary about the dark American art of selling self-delusion, largely in the service of climate change denial. The figures the Oscar-nominated director of “Food, Inc.” gets onto the screen are gleeful in their corruption-for-profit rhetoric, and it’s an itchy ride. Even spin gets spun. Based on a book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, “Merchants” dissects how the tobacco industry mastered the game of spreading doubt in public discourse. If two experts disagree, who do you trust? Bingo: spread doubt. Slick, stylish and deeply infuriating, “Merchants of Doubt” is splendid muckraking. 96m. (Ray Pride)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
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