Ryan McNeil
The saying goes that when making conversation, avoid politics and religion in order not to offend anyone. Someone must have forgot to tell this to Bill Maher. Seven years after getting kicked off network TV for a controversial political point, he’s on the big screen to talk about religion. So start drafting those comments of protest, here are my thoughts on RELIGULOUS.
Bill Maher spends the doc’s 101 minutes examining the details of organized religion. He spends most of his time dissecting Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. He speaks with all manner of believers, doubters, teachers, and preachers in an effort to better understand that which he does not. Maher’s position is that much of organized religion is based on mythology, heresay, and contradiction. While he readily admits he doesn’t have the answers to questions of faith, he puts those who do have the answers to the test.
Bill’s quest takes him around the world, from middle America where some truck stops are set up with makeshift chapels, to The Vatican in Rome, to Jerusalem where Christianity, Islam, and Judaism have spots of very holy ground. Maher combines his smarty-pants wit with a high level of skepticism in an attempt to understand what it is about religion that has shaped the lives of so many.
The doc was directed by Larry Charles, the mad scientist responsible for the Borat movie and television’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. Charles does some admirable work in honing Maher’s style and getting to the point of what must have been some very circular conversations. Maher and Charles seem to have gone to the Michael Moore School of Documentarianism, since they never let an opportunity for a witty reference pass them by. The movie often cuts to clips to put an exclamation point on a joke. It works well for a while, but gets tiresome and annoying in the home stretch.
While I quite enjoyed RELIGULOUS, its final act rubbed me the wrong way. Maher spends the entire time asking questions. He makes it quite clear that he doesn’t understand how so many can believe so devoutly, but in his summation, he tosses his abstract inquiry aside and unloads a very pointed stance. Making matters worse, it is presented in a very jarring way that seems in direct contradiction with the whimsy and ease of everything that came before it. I understood Maher’s point, and on certain levels agreed with parts of it…but it felt like an unnecessary exclamation point and left me with a rather lousy taste in my mouth.
The summation aside, I feel RELIGULOUS is an entertaining doc which drives home a stance of uncertainty with great gusto. While many won’t agree with half of what the film presents, and many might call it outright blasphemy, the doc tries to ask how faith somehow got confused into law through the centuries of organized religion. It’s a question for the ages, and even if Maher & Co. can’t answer it, they at least manage to entertain with slight sacrilege along the way.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I must head to confession and beg forgiveness for my heathen ways.
Even though I find his comedic style a bit lazy (always going for the easy jokes) someone needed to make this movie. I’m glad someone finally did.