The opener: A slick-as-oil wonderfully nostalgic collage celebrates America's marriage of culture and cars, and greenlights this documentary on our addiction to gas. The first third reflects on the history of that marriage in an insightful entertaining and broad way. But soon after, the production narrows its focus: Flex Fuels can help crack that addiction right now.

I'm a guy of average to midland intelligence, I've driven hybrids, and I even know a thing or two about combustion engines -- but I didn't know what the term "Flex Fuels" meant -- until I saw this doc. Thankfully, the doc is familiar with this unfortunately common obliviousness and doesn't make viewers feel bad when it reveals that the cars we are driving right now, may very well be Flex-Fuel-ready.

I don't think it's spoiling to explain that a flex fuel car is capable of running on gas or methanol or ethanol or any mixture thereof. See the video for more specifics. That's good because methanol and ethanol can be produced locally and without need for war. Oh, that's another slant of the doc, without being crazy liberal about it, the doc does make the assumption that the US spends billions militarily to protect oil interests abroad. If those billions were spent here to produce methanol and ethanol … we wouldn't have to risk lives because of foreign oil. However, there is no balance to this … no one steps up to list the draw backs of ethanol or methane.

Interestingly enough, the doc spends minimal time on electric & CNG, but doesn't even mention hybrid or hydrogen. It's squarely a proponent of a flex fuel revolution -- encouraging citizens to stand up and make it happen on their own by adapting their current vehicle to flex and/or opening a flex station in their local.

Definitely biased, but still a very nice presentation and educational doc.

-- Books by Author/Illustrator Ross Anthony --