Windfall | Rotten Tomatoes (2024)

72% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 43% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings

Residents of a rural upstate New York town discover the dark side of wind-energy development when they look into going green.

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Windfall

Critics Reviews

View All (18) Critics Reviews
Windfall | Rotten Tomatoes (1) Tom Keogh Seattle Times The poignant, frightening and visually striking documentary "Windfall" places debate within a very human perspective. Rated: 4/4 Mar 1, 2012 Full Review Windfall | Rotten Tomatoes (2) J. R. Jones Chicago Reader A full-throated attack on wind energy, this feature by Laura Israel is one of the most surprising (and depressing) eco docs I've seen in years. Feb 3, 2012 Full Review Windfall | Rotten Tomatoes (3) Andy Webster New York Times [An] urgent, informative and artfully assembled documentary. Rated: 3.5/5 Feb 2, 2012 Full Review Windfall | Rotten Tomatoes (4) Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com Laura Isreal's probing examination of America's emergent windmill industry comes through a microsomal case study in the small upstate New York town of Meredith. Rated: B Feb 6, 2012 Full Review Windfall | Rotten Tomatoes (5) Jennifer Merin About.com Filmmaker Laura Israel's investigation of how construction of wind turbines in rural New York State impacts local citizens is an important reminder that there are no easy and quick fixes for environmental issues. Rated: 4/5 Feb 6, 2012 Full Review Windfall | Rotten Tomatoes (6) Doris Toumarkine Film Journal International A stunning debut, with a fascinating subject, an array of plain-folk talking heads, and precious access to a besieged community. Feb 3, 2012 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Allegedly based on true events….it's just not plausible that one benign fella can control two other characters in this fashion. For a movie to excite rather than bore it has to have characters worthy of investment by the viewer. This is not that movie. Why would for example there be a carton of orange juice in the fridge of a multi million dollar isolated house situated in an orange grove? Why would the allegedly captured couple not take the fella on. Instead they pander to his egregious male envy..the location is to die for but even that could not save this pointless saga… add to that the backside of 2 men openly urinating not a good look! Priming ones tiny wife to ‘win over' the unkempt male intruder leaves the female viewer wondering if marriage was prostitution after all. Constantly being referred to as ‘babe' by the husband kinda seals the deal that this cluster F+++ of a movie is a solid one to avoid.. Rated 1/5 Stars • Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member This documentary at times seems like it's rushing to throw as many varieties of dirt at wind power as it can. Some of its complaints stick, some don't. But even if this film focuses too little on substance and too much on petty small-town personality clashes, it's different perspective on wind power still makes it an important film to let bounce off of you. Rated 2.5/5 Stars • Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member A fine movie that objectively outlines the reality of what happens in rural communities when they are solicited by industrial wind developers. Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member To quote J.R. Jones from the Chicago Reader,"A full-throated attack on wind energy, this feature by Laura Israel is one of the most surprising (and depressing) eco docs I've seen in years." Not quite a full-throat attack on wind energy but on megawatt turbines; I wish the director would have made an explicit distinction between consumer vs. commercial applications. The movie might have suffered from the lose of logical appeal if this distinction is made. There are several different types of wind turbines available. Fast sellers are the biggest from GE and United Technologies which are in the 2.5 - 3 MW category. Also, kinda of get the feeling of a socialist agenda in the Town of Meredith, anti-commerce in a sense especially from the self-proclaimed financier. Wind turbines are a very workable and applicable application of cheap energy that as Picken's states, "Twenty percent of the United States energy could be produced from alternative sources in the next ten years." To think wind is not sufficient makes me question the true tendency of this film. Rated 2/5 Stars • Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member Windfall is a profile of Meredith, NY a rural small town that became strongly divided when a few of the large landowners were approached to install large industrial wind turbines on their property. At first glance it seemed like a win-win situation. Several of these are dairy farms that are struggling to survive, and they will be contributing to energy independence so what's the issue? Well, as the town asked questions and did some research they realized that it was going to be a huge change: the noise of the turbines spinning up to 150 mph, flickering when the blades block/expose the sunshine, pressure differentials believed to cause feeling ill and turbine fires that are expected to be handled by the local fire dept. The landowners and their neighbors were paid a very small amount. I was surprised that the companies didn't provide these towns with free electricity! That might have helped get buy-in. I am in support of alternative energy sources and think these industrial turbines need to be located in remote locations that don't have impact on residential areas. Watch this film to gain a wider perspective to this topical issue. Rated 3/5 Stars • Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Nyt kaikki ihqt viherystäväiseni kipin kapin Netflixiin katsomaan dokkari tuulivoiman ihanuudesta. Suosittelene. Rated 3.5/5 Stars • Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Windfall

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Cast & Crew

Laura Israel Director Rosemary Nichols Actor Robert L. Rosen Actor Don Faller Executive Producer Laura Israel Producer Autumn Tarleton Producer
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Windfall

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Synopsis Residents of a rural upstate New York town discover the dark side of wind-energy development when they look into going green.

Director
Laura Israel

Producer
Laura Israel, Autumn Tarleton

Distributor
First Run

Production Co
Cat Hollow Films

Genre
Documentary, Drama

Original Language
English

Release Date (Theaters)
Feb 3, 2012, Limited

Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 25, 2019

Box Office (Gross USA)
$6.1K

Runtime
1h 21m
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Windfall | Rotten Tomatoes (2024)

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