The Cove is the Sundance Audience Award-winning documentary about the dolphin trainer from Flipper‘s attempts to document the annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan.  I saw some of the footage from these hunts in Earthlings (which is awesome if you like being scarred for life), and it was pretty much the gnarliest thing ever.  The fisherman surround the dolphins in boats, clank on the hulls to confuse the dolphins’ echolocation, then herd them into shallow water where they slit the dolphins throats while they flop around and gut them alive in front of their dolphin families.  So basically, an awesome date movie (supposedly that method of killing has since been banned). But anyway, the reviews of The Cove are saying the cool part about it is that it’s more like a heist flick than your average rich-people-who-love-to-hate-themselves animal rights essay.

The film’s true intrigue, however, lies not in the story it exposes, but in the process by which the crew attempts to capture the story itself. Director Louie Psihoyos and his eclectic team must overcome a daunting number of obstacles, including possible deportation and a run-in with the Yakuza, in order to capture the footage necessary for exposing the town and its terrible secret. [Examiner]

And if college catalogue covers have taught me anything, it’s that by eclectic they mean two white guys, a black guy, an Asian chick, and a fat kid in a wheelchair.  Also: It would be awesome if they trained one of the dolphins to infiltrate the Yakuza.

[Available in HD at Apple]