Religulous Review

Let me say this before I start. I like Bill Maher. And, I have a vested (academic) interest in documentaries of this nature which deal with how and what people believe. That out of the way, you should know that I was really excited for the film to come out. Maher's dealings with religion are brutally honest, sometimes smug, sometimes genuine, but always entertaining. Unlike other religious critics like Richard Dawkins, Maher's criticism manages to make sense on a common sense level rather than Dawkin's snobbish put down of religion and religious people. Maher may be smug, but he at least attempts a dialogue. And of course, we all remember that last movie Larry Charles did where someone went into places and attempted to talk to people...

Sitting in the theater, my inital fear was that this was going to be a drawn out "Real Time with Bill Maher." Thankfully, the film manages to escape that through clever editing, interspursing costume-drama religious films throughout the movie. Besides providing a ready respite to a movie that is essentially about Maher talking to people, these montages have the effect of correlating religious beliefs with some sort of Hollywood hocus-pocus. It's classic Maher comedy, pointing out the utter ridiculousness in what we think by turning common sense on its head. A tactic that most religious folks take offense to. And there's a lot of that in this movie.

Charles, having attacked the ridiculousness of rabid American nationalism in Borat, turns his directorial eye to the ridiculousness of fundamentalist faiths. Only, this time there's not a character to hide Maher behind and on more than one occasion, Maher is recognized and cast out for his prior deeds and anti-religious stances. And, whereas Borat had Cohen's search for Pam Anderson, Maher's search in Religulous is rather, well, aimless. He travels from the halls of the Senate to the site of Armegeddon to Holland to a Trucker's Chapel and everywhere inbetween.

Each of these interviews is punctuated with Maher's sarcastic comments filmed while travelling. What Maher is trying to bring to believers is doubt and he manages to set folks on their heels, without ever convincing them of everything. It's a rather insumountable problem that translates over to the audience as well. Walking out of this film, you can't help but feel that like most of the other folks there, you agree (at least moderately) with what Maher says, but those who don't believe what he says probably aren't going to see it.

Oddly, some of the best parts of this movie are rather overlooked like Maher's conversations with his mother and sister about his own religious upbringing or Maher's flirtations with religion throughout his life. These poignant and rather probing moments of one of the worlds strongest advocates of doubt are practically overlooked for a larger political stance that, when Maher makes it at the end of the film, seems overblown, overdramatic, and non-personal. Sure, religion is a destructive force and represents a serious threat to our lifestyle, esp. when extremitsts like Bin Laden advocate getting a nuke to back up their faith. But, when we get to this dramatic end, it seems full of itself and detached from the actual believers. Maher's attack is the religious beliefs, but you can't help but wonder if he's forgotten about the people who believe what they do.

7.0