Stink! (2015) User Reviews

A repeating message on a loop

[yawningdog-gmw · 6/10 · 14 December 2019]

The premise of the documentary is sincere and valid, so it should be watched to be educated.

But from a filmmaking perspective, the content in whole film could have been squeezed into 15-20 minutes, certainly not worthy of feature length.

Most important fact... The US has banned only 10 cancer causing chemicals within a category... Europe has banned 1,200 chemicals within the same category. Wow!

A Must See...Reveals Poisons Are As Close As The Products We Expose Ourselves To

[AudioFileZ · 8/10 · 28 December 2020]

This documentary is obviously exposing a wide-ranging issue that is not getting addressed properly. With a catchy name like 'Stink", the title projects a several things. Things like fragrances use a loop-hole allowing them to be a mixture of chemicals often that are known to be harmful to health. Since the products that simply list "fragrance" as an ingredient are the most widely used among all households we all become ginea pigs with our very health as the lab.

We have the ability to identify thus remove these questionable ingredients yet industry and government have failed often more than not in policing toxins. This is the state of our world and the US is the worst as we often chose the easier route allowing any manufacturer to police their own products

The American Chemical Council is one of the most well funded and nefarious lobbying groups on Capitol Hill. As consumers, and American citizens, we at a distinct disadvantage. It's a classic case of the fox guarding the hen house

It often takes tragedies to inact change and often the slow burn of illness associated with chemical exposure further weight our disadvantage. Still even known dangerous chemicals get through, let alone new compounds we may have zero knowledge of. This film will make the viewer angry as such. It will raise the awareness of the problem. Will it affect a sea-change? I'd say it's imperative we get going toward aggressive governmental protection of all Americans. Complete testing of all products and their chemical makeup should happen. It should be before ANY products are sold to the public. As a society we must accept this burden as necessary. Overall many health problems continue to rise as statistics over many decades of industrial growth clearly parallel. Watch, feel the anger and fear, and push for safe and responsible change.

Really good watch

[joanne-seaby · 8/10 · 9 May 2019]

This is a really good documentary about the hidden ingredients in products, like the products that just say parfum (go check your hand wash or washing up liquid or even body cream) or flavourings (Pepsi/Coke). Would recommend this as it is an interesting watch.

Shocking, Informative, Artistic, Moving

[alanfredricktrahan · 7/10 · 13 November 2018]

For the most part, I absolutely loved this documentary. I think Jon Whelan diligently researched and produced a film that everybody would benefit from seeing. He turned a tragic event into a very emotional narrative interspersed with important information. It was well paced and respectful (for the most part), and I believe it filled a gap that needed to be investigated.

The only thing that made me wary (and prevented me from a 10 rating) was the political material. Mentioning Planned Parenthood seemed out of place, and any piece of journalism which mentions this organization when it doesn't deal with the work the organization does sends red flags of biased partisan coloring in the journalist's work. I understand that he was attempting to explore the politician and organization being at odds on the chemicals issue, but that is true of any business and candidate; they're not going to agree on everything. The way he congratulated the politician on his endorsement made me look questionably as well. The other issue I saw was a little bit of confrontational pushy methods when approaching his interviewees.

All that said, great documentary, well worth watching.

You're about to hate just about every product you love.

[emilyblunt · 9/10 · 9 December 2015]

Documentary. Emily Blunt of BluntReview says:Please go see this...but be warned, you will then be up all night reading labels…and tossing out lots off stuff. Because Stink! is gonna leave a huge stank.

Watch in wonder as unpronounceable chemicals become "fragrance" – a code word for, well, what ever the hell the manufacturer wants to put in there. It's eye-opening and shocking.

See real people, asked simple questions, morph into shifty-eyed 1940s gangster film double talkers performing an impromptu verbal Cirque du Soleil – simply to avoid disclosing any ingredient, or its actual point for being in something.

The whole documentary thing started after a father bought PJs for his kids. The children could not stand the smell coming off the youth-geared apparel, purchased at a youth-geared franchise. And so began his journey down the rabid rabbit labyrynth of corporate fun in some mental game of Twister.

There's no clever edits to shape a bias. The footage just plays as your popcorn is held in mid-crunch; what is this "butter" that's so so yellow. Spoiler for mankind: the worst offender is scented items; read anything that has scent added. Period. Those hidden ingredients have directly lead to obesity, asthma, cancer…death. And (it this is not a dramatic play) the fragrance has no legal need to have its ingredients listed; they can blend anything, pop it in there, and call it "Apple Scented." Everyone should see Stink! You'll discover there are really, honestly, no safety controls on our products' ingredients. You can absolutely have poison in there and thanks to "proprietary formulas" you are not allowed to know. In fact, under current law, there can be toxins in products and the FDA can not even issue a recall <- this is paraphrased from an actual scene in Stink of a Senate hearing… ....Beware the Phthalates

Wake Up

[ambolmes · 10/10 · 15 November 2018]

Another unfortunate documentary about how our own country dismisses and abuses it's citizens. The US is despicable. I wish more people would watch it and choose to be informed.

An important view into why we're all sick

[saraheworboys · 10/10 · 12 March 2019]

This documentary is extremely important. We are getting sicker and sicker whilst thinking we're developing- proof we need to go back to being natural. To the naysayers on here (who I think are undercover pharmaceutical company workers) take any product in your house, google the ingredients and you'll find a wealth of scientific studies explaining the harmful effects of these chemicals. Look up Titanium Dioxide; an ingredient in toothpaste. I dare you. Please also remember to the animal lovers out there; these chemicals are all tested on animals. Making your own products from ingredients you have at home; such as lemons and coconut oil- are not.

Eye opening - Must see !!

[Nemesis42 · 10/10 · 3 January 2019]

Interesting work, thanks for creating this documentary. The director has some impressive balls personally approaching and interviewing various sock puppet industrial and political mouthpieces. There is little raw science presented here but if you wish to obtain a starting point to embark upon your own research on any of the included chemical compounds or industrial perversions, this is a great primer.

Ineptness, hypocrisy and saddening ethical behavior from both government and industry is unveiled in this work. Watch and learn.

Convoluted and hard to stay on track.

[turnerholdingsllc · 1/10 · 19 November 2018]

The movie starts out showing the directors abosultly beautiful wife and you find she died of breast cancer. You feel sadness for this man and then he opens a pair of Justice pajamas and they smell. The smell the film claims is secret and protected by the government and companies and says its proprietary. The director goes through the impotent search of what's in the pajamas by calling the company Several times including the Chinese manufacturers but he never once googled what's used I'm making clothes? He then cant find the answer so he sends it off to a lab and finds out not shockingly (to me )that china is using banned chemicals. So he confronts the CEO of Justice brand at an investor meeting and clearly the CEO doesn't know what's in making the clothes and is just following standard procedure. Now the documentary takes a wild turn and now is trying to blend the smell of the pajamas to Fragrance Labels? The showed channel # 5 and Jwow and AXE body spray. They again kept on saying that its proprietary and is secret. He interviews perfume makers and clearly cut the tape when they told him what's in it. Perfume has been made since the beginning of civilization it's made out of the same ingredients the reason they do not tell you what's in perfume or cologne is becuase it's from animal glands. Beaver, muskrat, and and skunk. Its mixed with vanilla bean extract and floral extracts. It's not toxic and it's not a chemical. The whole documentary started correctly with the chemical in clothes this is why its recommended to wash clothes before you wear them. Then it turns into anything that has Fragrance label is a cancer causing chemical it's simply not True and it takes away from the real danger the active ingredients that clearly say Danger on it and the formaldehyde that's in new clothes. Leather has an insane about of chemicals in it and that wasn't mentioned. It's not a good documentary.

Hysteria about carcinogenes in everything, zero evidence

[yalisichko · 3/10 · 22 November 2018]

Hysteria about chemicals in everything. If you enjoy panicking about gluten, carcinogenes, lactose and other stuff, you'd find it eye-opening. If you have a bit of critical mind, you'll be disappointed by absence of evidence and science in this movie. Starts from a kids pijamas that stinks (can't you just wash it?), and goes into corporations that hide what's inside the bottles. Everything is annoyingly vague, no numbers, no statistics, nothing about the harmful dosage ("they said that amount was safe but you use other products that add up").

Nothing new under the sun

[tami-jones76 · 3/10 · 19 June 2020]

This film was recommended by a local massage therapist. I could barely get through the repetitive themes that products do not fully disclose ingredients. OK, we get it. So what can be done? Nothing. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are corrupt and lobbyists run the show in DC. Yep, already knew that. Big Chem, like Big Pharma, are in it for the money. Yep knew that too. Best we can do is try to buy products that are clean. Good luck with that. Afterwards I went to the local 'clean' product store also recommended by the masseuse. Chose a cleanser advertised as safe and non-toxic. Read the ingredients - you guessed it....'fragrance' was listed. Put it back on the shelf. Moving on with my life.