Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea

Plagues and Pleasures has a different style for a reason: It's a movie about the environment that isn't content with the good-bad dynamic of your average gloomy enviropic.

While the doc flounders as a coherent story of human folly, it's a cheeky travelmercial guaranteed to get the curious to make the road trip to this near-abandoned resort.

It makes for a strange, but somewhat endearing, melange of the grim and comic.

Examines the sad history of the sea and its steadfast champions, some of whom persistently believe another economic heyday is just around the corner, along with a cautionary tale about the consequences of tampering with Mother Nature.