Doc Watch: Mad Men, Part II

Science day:

ADDICTION INCORPORATED (2011) (B) - This is a solid overview of the last gasps of Big Tobacco trying to cover up the fact that they exploited the addictive qualities of nicotine until they couldn't hide it any longer. It benefits from a fine leading man who carries the narrative on his shoulders.

Debut filmmaker Charles Evans Jr. marches workmanlike through the 1980s and 1990s as he builds to the last gasps of the old guard of Philip Morris and the gang getting away with murder. Evans latches on to a chief talking head who comes with a ready-made hero name: Victor DeNoble.

DeNoble worked on the inside at Philip Morris in the early '80s, developing a variation on the nicotine molecule, a synthetic product that would ostensibly be safer but more addictive, keeping the hooked customers alive longer to buy more cigarettes. DeNoble is an eloquent chemist and an invaluable talking head. His personal story is woven throughout "Addiction Incorporated," as he ends up testifying before Congress with a former colleague, driving a stake through the heart of Big Tobacco's deceptions.

Evans spends too much time in the first half using animation of lab rats to goose the visuals, but he settles in later with more interview subjects, including investigative journalists and former FDA officials. He almost has too much information to squeeze into 100 minutes, but he makes smart choices.  When DeNoble shows up at the end speaking to a class of students, it makes for a fitting conclusion to his inspiring life story.

THE IMMORTALISTS (C-minus) - A swing and a miss. This documentary about two eccentric scientists hunting for the secret to immortality goes heavy on personality and light on science, and the imbalance sinks the storytelling

Aubrey de Grey is a Cambridge intellectual with a mountain-man beard, and Bill Andrews is a preppy American who engages in extreme marathon running with his fiancee, Molly. The middle-aged men work doggedly to discover the key to cellular aging, seeking to halt it, if not reverse the aging process. We also meet de Grey's elderly mother and Andrews' aged father, both of whom are starting to suffer from dementia.

It's not necessarily the choice to emphasize the personal that sinks the proceedings; it's just that de Grey and Andrews are not particularly compelling, and the interactions with their parents repeatedly fall flat. Newcomers David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg struggle to sustain a narrative, and the movie drags, even at 78 minutes.

The filmmakers litter the screen with explanations of the science behind the pursuit, but it comes off as more stylistic than informative. A centerpiece scene, in with de Grey debates a detractor, is edited so severely that it is stripped of most meaning and impact. There's a decent story here, but the good parts are mostly missing.