In the engrossing and often amusing Finnish documentary Recipes for Disaster, some of the drastic measures that filmmaker/patriarch John Webster inflicts on his wife and two boys can be maddening to witness, let alone endure. Committing to a year-long oil diet without compromising their suburban lifestyle, Webster and his clan attempt to detach themselves from life’s routine luxuries, from fossil fuel to anything packaged in petroleum-based plastic: makeup, shampoo, even toothpaste. As the filmmaker’s stringent demands increase, so does the tension of his marriage, and what began as an experiment to ameliorate an environmentally dubious middle-class existence rapidly transforms into a test of willpower for everyone involved.

The film not only investigates how our daily routine affects global warming, it also paints a candid portrait of an exceptional family dynamic. By focusing directly on the strains of its subjects, this Super Size Me/An Inconvenient Truth crossbreed is given an added sense of humanity, exposed through the group’s sense of humour, and Webster’s cleverly integrated intertitles, vintage footage and jovial voice-over narration.