STINK!

Net Return
Reviewed by: Harvey Karten for Shockya. Databased on Rotten Tomatoes.
Grade: B
Director:  Jon Whelan
Written by:  Jon Whelan, Bryan Gunnar Cole
Cast: Jon Whelan
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 11/11/15
Opens:  November 27, 2015

I’m looking at the WebMD website which usually has reliable health information.  Under the heading “Ten Health Myths Debunked,” along with advice that you do not have to drink eight glasses of water daily or give up eggs is this comment—“Myth: Antiperspirant Causes Breast Cancer.  Don’t sweat it!  Some scientists think the chemicals found in antiperspirants and deodorants can be absorbed through your underarm.  The idea is they end up in breast tissue and make tumors more likely.  But the National Cancer Institute says there’s no evidence connecting either product with breast cancer.”  I provide this counsel as a partial balance to the theme developed by documentarian Jon Whelan, who co-wrote “Stink!” with Bryan Gunnar Cole.  “Stink!” is not an objective documentary, nor does it need to be any more than Michael Moore’s having to provide both sides of every political debate.  However, it should be noted that Whelan, a bright, young, eager fellow albeit one who does not begin to provide the levity we’re accustomed to in Michael Moore’s docs, may present both sides of his argument, but he is clearly on the side of stricter regulations of corporate practices.  He does allow us to hear the arguments made by lobbyists for the industries that use chemicals in their preparations, but somehow, when we watch a senator or representative question the lobbyists—who make far more money each year than members of Congress—we can’t help thinking that the corporate big shots are covering up, that they are poisoning us slowly, that we should not buy their products, and we should ask our representatives to crack down on their employers’ ways of doing business.

We soon see that Jon Whelan’s motivation in focusing on the fragrances and other chemicals put into so many of our cleaning products, shampoos, beverages and the like is that his wife Heather died of breast cancer while still in her thirties, leaving Whelan to bring up his two lovely children himself.  He does not accuse the corporations of causing the serious illness, but he implicitly allows us to consider that possibility.  As Whelan says on the movie’s website, www.stinkmovie.com, “I used to be ignorant about the Cancer Loophole. I thought that if a product was on the shelf in a store,that meant it was safe…that if a product contained dangerous, toxic ingredients…that could cause cancer, [it] would be banned.”

His major point is that because of weak regulation, companies do not have to disclose whether their products are carcinogenic or harmful in other ways.  A typical cover-up is that a corporation can label its product with the ingredient “fragrance” without disclosing what chemicals have been added to provide the allegedly pleasant smell.  In fact quite a number of chemicals can be added to deliver the odor desired.  In Europe, by contrast, such action is not allowed as Europeans lawmakers have stricter rules to govern products on the Continent.

The movie is largely repetitious, hammering home the idea that the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, needs greater authority to ban products with ingredients considered dangerous, but our Congress has not been willing to grant the regulatory agency.  Each time Jon Whelan buttonholes a lobbyist or in one case a member of Congress friendly to the industry, he is either shunned or talked to while the corporate bigwig is heading toward his car, or given a dose of doublespeak.  When I returned home after the movie, I looked at a bottle of Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, baby shampoo mind you! only to discover
that the product contains PEG-80, Sorbitan Laurate, Cacamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Trideceth Sulfate,PEG-150, Disterate Phenoxyethanol, Glycerin, Citric Acid, FRAGRANCE!, Sodium Benzoate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Polyquaternium-10, Ethylhexylglycerin, Sodium Hydroxide, Potassium Acrylates Copolymer, Yellow 6, and Yellow 10.  At least they disclosed the chemicals.  Did they have to?  You may get the impression from the film that they must have been required to do so, that Johnson and Johnson would happily hide every ingredient that follows “water,” and that stinks.

Unrated.  91 minutes.  © Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online

Story – B+
Acting – B
Technical – B
Overall – B