Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea Image
Metascore
72 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 8 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: Once known as the "California Riviera," the Salton Sea is now called one of America's worst ecological disasters. This documentary covers the historical, economic, political, and environmental issues that face the Sea, it more importantly offers up an offbeat portrait of the eccentric and individualistic people who populate its shores. Hair-raising and hilarious, part history lesson, part cautionary tale and part portrait of one of the strangest communities you've ever seen, this is the American Dream gone as stinky as a dead carp. (Tilapia Corp.)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    100
    This is a startlingly funny portrait of Gothic Americana.
  2. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Eric Campos
    80
    Plagues & Pleasures is kinda like one of those travel videos, except it's offering you a vacation like you've never had before and it's not loaded with bulls---.
  3. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: John McMurtrie
    75
    To their credit, directors Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer, both of San Francisco, poke gentle fun at the locals without ridiculing them. The film's playful spirit is underscored by catchy steel-guitar melodies (courtesy of the Friends of Dean Martinez) that perfectly suit the bone-dry setting.
  4. Variety
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    60
    Jaunty and fun for a while, with a cast of colorful locals who make the residents of "Vernon, Florida" seem normal, pic ultimately overstays its welcome and overstates its case.

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. RommelJ.
    10
    Have been watching this documentary on the Sundance cable network and it is highly compelling, a tour de force in that it speaks volumes to the deaf ears in Palm Springs, San Diego, Congress and the California Legislature who refuse to do anything to stabilize the impending entropic ecological disaster which is Salton Sea/Sink. If the sea should evaporate at its current rate, the effect that an exposed alkaline flat would have on Palm Springs would be devastating, and this film touched on that subject, if only cursorily.… Expand

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