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Religulous

“Comedically speaking, the topic of religion is pretty much hitting the side of a barn.” So says Bill Maher, host of the late Politically Incorrect and HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, about the topic that has been providing him with material since his days as a standup comic.

Religulous is his feature-length documentary devoted to the topic, and I won’t deny that it made me laugh. Of course it would—I’m on the same page with Maher in believing that religion is at best irrational and that a lot of harm is done in its name. But if Maher was hoping to do anything other than preach to the converted, it would be hard to call Religulous a success. Far too much of it consists of Daily Show-type interviews with people who can’t be taken very seriously. It may make for a funny 10-second clip to talk to an actor who plays Jesus at a Bible theme park, but Maher lets the segment drag on long after the visual joke is over. There are plenty of “gotcha” moments, like a Christian senator saying that “You don’t have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate.” And when his subjects aren’t saying anything obviously laughable (or if he and collaborator Larry Charles, director of Borat, are afraid you might not get the joke), he’ll punctuate the screen with a silly clip from an old movie. There are no lack of intelligent commentators who could have provided entertaining interviews, and given Maher’s reputation it’s surprising not to see Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins or Salman Rushdie. Instead, we get segments with people who appear not to understand Maher’s questions, like a Dutch priest who espouses the use of marijuana or a pair of gay Muslim activists. Maybe Maher and Charles aimed low because a more serious attack on religion would have no chance at being exhibited in American moviehouses. Still, I only wish the film lived up to its portentous finale, in which a heroically-angled Maher proclaims that “Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking…Religion must die for mankind to live.” Amen, brother, but don’t tell me, tell the ones who don’t already agree with you.

m. faust


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