LOLs aplenty in Bill Maher's Religulous

Quasi-documentary about the value of organized religion shoots fish in a barrel, but scores plenty of laughs along the way

While watching Bill Maher's new comic documentary, Religulous, I was reminded of sleepover parties I used to have with an old grade-school buddy, Ray Page. Ray's parents had a VCR, so we would rent R-rated movies and watch them very late at night after his parents went to bed. We were 10 or 11 years old, and this felt extremely subversive at the time. In hindsight, watching Mel Brooks's History of the World, Part 1 or Bachelor Party really wasn't as Weather Underground as it felt at the time—but it really was fun.

But thinking back to those eary days of VHS, one film really stands out: Monty Python's Life of Brian. Life of Brian was an extremely controversial film when it came out in thelate 70s, I believe the Catholic Church declared it so blasphemous that anyone who watched it would get a mortal sin smackdown. If you're unfamiliar with the movie, it's about the kid who was born in the mager next door to the manger where Jesus was born, and the wacky misadventures Brian endures as a simple guy, trying to live a quiet life, only to be deemed a messiah by a bunch of sily followers. The film's final crucifiction sing-a-long ranks among the most audacious , hilarious moments of cinematic blasphemy in film history. I remember laughing myself silly but also found it to be kind of a thrilling film—it went out on a subversive limb that shook me out of my Sunday School culture and made me wonder about how provocative satire could be.

Which brings me back to Religulous, Bill Maher's very funny skewering of organized religion. Maher (host of HBO's Real Time) plays theological muckracker, globetrotting from the Vatican to Israel to a red state truck stop church, poking and probing people about their faith. Maher's personality is the key to whether or not you will like the film. Some will find him unbearaly condescending and mean-spirited—making fun of simple minded yokels for believing in talking snakes and burning bushes, and then rolling is eyes when they answer that they believe. But I found Maher to be an acceptable gadfly/provocateur, and if you're in the mood for laughs, there are plenty to be found in this film. Just know that, aside from a  fascinating conversation with a Catholic astronomer—this isn't a deep think piece about theology, but an indictment of the theme parks and snake oil salesmen that exploit religion—with a somewhat jarring, heavy-handed ending in which Maher suggests religious extremists might make Armageddon a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I have to compliment the film's director, Larry Charles (Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm), for the way he edits  snippets of hokey religious cartoons, clips form Scarface, and myriad other sources into his fly-on-the-wall docu-footage. This is not a Ken Burns doc, but it does make for some cutting edge comedy.

Posted at 11:57 AM in Pete's Popcorn Picks | Permalink