‘Meat the future’: film review

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‘Meat the future’: film review

2 June 2020
News
Liz Marshall's smooth, accessible documentary may change some minds as it unpacks the specifics of the slaughter-free "clean meat" movement.
“Meat the Future” is a slightly goofy title for a film that takes its subject very, very seriously. The wordplay feels like a token flourish of whimsy in Liz Marshall’s quietly educational documentary about the rise of alternative, environmentally friendly but still animal-based meat, as if to gently beckon carnivorous viewers who might be expecting a dour lecture. That isn’t on the cards here, however. “Meat the Future” unfolds as a thorough and persuasive presentation for a cutting-edge product that it wants us to start thinking about in normalized terms; it’s got too much to explain and advocate to leave much time for moral repudiation. “Clean meat,” as cell-grown protein has been branded by the scientists developing it, is the future; Marshall’s doc treats the present as a formality to be politely put behind us.