Joshua and Rebecca Harrell Tickell challenge the country’s unethical farming practices through experts and celebrity advocates in a naive film that nonetheless inspires change.
By Tomris Laffy
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. Their words claim to reveal harsh truths that boil down to, “We have failed you” and “We should have done better.” This parade of famous voices is a curiously trite start for a film driven by facts and stats for the most part. 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. And once they do (albeit, with unnecessary interruptions by the aforesaid celebs), “Common Ground” proves it has some meaty arguments to offer, despite feeling like a sunny infomercial on occasion.