Religulous.

Since the topic of last reviews journey through 'Real Life Month' was a little heavy, let's look at something a little lighter, a little more comedy orientated....let's look at religion. Enjoy!

Religulous is written by and starring American Comedian Bill Maher and directed by the guy who did Borat. It was a financial and critical success, it's been commented that it isn't a very good documentary but it is so hilarious people seemed to find it hard to care. So were the critics right on this one? Let's find out!

The documentary starts very differently than where it ends up, it starts seemingly with the fascinating question, 'why do people believe?'. As Maher grew up catholic, in a family of both Jews and Catholics, he just wants to explore why people believe...how they can believe something that everyone knows can't be real...surely. However pretty quickly his documentary descends into simply an attack, that is fine for a Youtube Rant video, but this was a theatrically released documentary, it had a several million budget. Just saying religion is nuts and then finding a single crazy religious person isn't documentary filmmaking. I dislike organised religion as much as Maher does, but I think if they went more intellectually about this it would have had more impact, instead the whole thing is just shallow, to use Maher's own expression on religion, this documentary is a 'self-fulfilling prophecy', he says religion is bad and then finds himself a conman. I mean there are moments when Maher steps back and gives a more neutral, or positive response but for the most part he is just attack, attack, attack and he'll find one person who fits his point perfectly, even if finding someone who will fit his point, rather than fitting his point to what he finds, is the wrong way round to do things, but whatever. I don't know if this is all some huge metapoint, but for me it just said weak documentary filmmaking.

I mean don't get me wrong Maher is a funny guy, he is enjoyable to follow around. He isn't afraid of hurting anyone's feelings, he never tries to beat around the bush, he just goes for it for some truly hilarious results. It is not him so much that I have a problem with, it's just that content, man - I can't get over it. It's just so laughably poor for a documentary, there is no journey, no learning, he never pushes for either end of the spectrum or seems to have any idea in mind to try and be balanced. He hates organised religion and he's going to find people who will prove that for him. And that's bullshit.

Admittedly due to Maher constantly hunting down conmen and nutters it can lead to some sometimes fascinating interviews. Maher never seems to have much control of his subjects, leaving interviews feeling as unfocused and sloppy as the construction of the documentary does but it's hard to deny how fascinating some of these characters are, and seeing Maher rile them up, or seem them rile Maher up is an interesting and often hilarious watch, don't get me wrong.

Religulous looks like shit. I understand it's a documentary so there is no real need for expectation on cinematography or whatever, but cameramen keep getting in each others shots and you can see boom mics in nearly every shot, it feels sloppy. I don't know if this is some kind of metapoint as well or what, but it looks awful and is really distracting. The film does use clips from a wide range of sources though, some even unexpected to give you something to look at constantly and a lot of these are quite well placed for hilarious results, I liked the text prompts too.

So do I recommend it? The critics were right, this isn't a very good documentary. I'm no fan of organised religion myself, I make no secret of that, but I expect more than a shoddily put together attack from a theatrically released documentary. Is it funny? Yes and so I guess I can recommend this on entertainment, but this is a truly awful documentary and easily the worst film on my journey so far.

Think About It!

-Locke