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‘Common Ground’ Review: Well-Intentioned Doc About Regenerative Farming Offers Limited Insights Into an American Environmental Crisis
Joshua and Rebecca Harrell Tickell challenge the country’s unethical farming practices through experts and celebrity advocates like Laura Dern and Rosaria Dawson in a naïve film that nonetheless inspires change.
A well-meaning yet generic environmental activism documentary with sporadic insights, “ Common Ground ” opens with a series of stars including Laura Dern, Jason Momoa, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson and Rosario Dawson as they write apologetic letters to future generations. It’s as if co-directors Joshua and Rebecca Harrell Tickell (“Kiss The Ground”) seek instant credibility through empty-calorie celebrity activism, when they should just let the experts speak about the film’s main focus: ethical regenerative farming. “Common Ground” does exactly that, briefly touching upon a wide variety of scientific and historical details, from how the indigenous people of the Americas and the revolutionary Black agricultural scientist George Washington Carver had it right, to why it is better for the economy to prioritize regenerative farming and biodiversity.
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