From Toronto: Larry Charles' RELIGULOUS

Festival coverage sponsored by Indiepix.

As we've previously reported, the Bill Maher-hosted, Larry Charles-helmed RELIGULOUS, was building a bad buzz wave throughout the summer.  Festival screenings were abruptly canceled and some of those who saw an early cut of the film reported an uneven and frequently unfunny, overly strident film.

But the first "official" critical responses to the film from trade crix Robert Koehler (for Variety) and Kirk Honeycutt (for the Reporter) were raves, so perhaps the early word was off (or editing helped the film's cause).

However, Karina Longworth, writing a hammering critique for Spout, argues that the early line was correct:

"Maher continually flips the script, here using serious questioning not as an end, but a means to immature, unenlightening mockery. It quickly becomes apparent that Maher’s journey is not about finding out what makes religious people tick, but about using the tics of mostly fringe religious people to prop up the thesis Maher came in with. Which is––in a nutshell, but totally without irony––that everyday religious practice will soon result in global apocalypse.

It would be easier to take Maher’s stated project on its face if he, Charles and their editors didn’t insist on undermining the sincerity of the mission at regular intervals with rapid-fire cutaways, usually to either a bit of “ironic” found footage, or to Maher himself, ranting from the back of a moving SUV. Most of the interviews in Religulous, all conducted by Maher, start out almost startlingly strong, with the star’s uncanny knack for cutting directly to the heart of the matter on full display. But whether because his inquisitiveness is in short supply, or because he was never really in the room to learn from his subjects to begin with, Maher almost without fail finds ways to subject his subjects to ridicule. It’s one thing when he and a person of faith get into a debate; it’s frustrating that Maher refuses to give anyone the benefit of the doubt, but at least there’s an honesty to an unmitigated conversation between people who legitimately disagree. The real cruelty comes when Maher is polite (or, at least, not aggressively derisive) in person, but then uses cutaways and/or subtitles to make it clear that we’re supposed to share Maher’s conviction that Religious Person X is a drooling idiot. Maybe this is just part of the rules of the post-reality TV game, but such mean-spirited recontextualization, at least in this case, doesn’t feel like the right path towards a greater filmed truth. It doesn’t even produce footage controversial or incendiary enough to justify the methods by which it was obtained."

More on this argument from the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips:

"It’s easy to watch and, I’m afraid, too easy to dismiss, both on comic terms and on religious (or anti-religious) ones. It comes out swinging a sledgehammer. No rapiers here. Religion is stupid and here’s why. The world will be destroyed by two things, Maher asserts: Fundamentalist fervor and inattention to humankind’s ravages of the planet. Throughout, from a visit to a truckers’ chapel to a trek to Jerusalem, Maher has his way with true believers of all kinds.  

The best jokes are found in the alleyways and not on the main highways, such as Maher’s sidewinding conversation with an Amsterdam fellow whose personal religion worships marijuana. At another point Maher and crew attempt to film a segment outside the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City, only to be interrupted by a visit from guys identified on camera as “Mormon fuzz.”

Religion, like politics, practically dares anyone thinking or writing about it to remain neutral. What’s the point? As someone whose beliefs are closer on the belief spectrum to Maher than, say, to the Pope, I wish Maher’s film made its points in a cleverer way, building a case rather than restating a thesis and a disdain for Holy Bible literalists, over and over and over."

Ditto from the Dallas Morning News' Tom Maurstad:

"Like Bill Maher, it's smart and funny, and frustrating and infuriating. Somewhere between Michael Moore's FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and Sacha Baron Cohen's BORAT , the movie is part satire and part polemic. But the funny thing about this often-funny film is that as it works its way through a world of true believers and charlatans, Mr. Maher proves himself to be as dogmatic and intolerant as the targets of his irony and ire."

Cinematical's James Rocchi has a mixed response, but suggests that the film fits in with a trend of recent books that call agnostics and atheists to action:

"Like most documentaries dealing with weighty matters....the concern in RELIGULOUS isn't that there'll be no sizzle with the steak but rather if there'll be steak to go with the sizzle; does RELIGULOUS have the right ratio of factual points to funny punch lines, a balanced mix of context and comedy?

That answer will vary depending on your tastes -- I for one found some of the film's straw-man interviews, like Maher's interview with the figurehead of an Amsterdam-based church of "Cantheism" (which uses marijuana as a sacrament and seems to partake in their equivalent of communion a lot), more irritating than enlightening. What any observer will appreciate in RELIGULOUS, though, is the bravery, bravado and blunt force Maher and Charles bring to the film...

RELIGULOUS will not inspire any person of faith to give up their beliefs, of course -- and whether you see that as a demonstration of unyielding devotion or unthinking dogma will, again, depend on your point of view -- but Maher and Charles, to their credit, seem to be focusing their film more at challenging non-believers than believers. Maher's big finish for RELIGULOUS is tonally very similar to the way he closes out his HBO show Real Time -- a stern, serious discussion that follows the jokes like serving broccoli after dessert -- where Maher's line of argument is that non-believers need to step up, speak out and be heard to try and change the course of public opinion."

The LA Times' Mark Olsen reports on the premiere (he previously interviewed Charles):

"A small group of protesters paraded outside the world premiere of RELIGULOUS, the comedic inquiry of religious faith directed by Larry Charles and starring Bill Maher, Saturday night at the Ryerson. Waving placards with the slogans "Pray For Bill," "Don't Mock My Religion" and "Hate + Fear + Religulous," the dozen or so protesters marched in a small circle near -- but at a safe remove from -- the front doors of the auditorium both before and after the screening.

Inside, the film was met with a standing ovation. Among the first questions during the post-screening Q&A was whether the filmmakers had hired the protesters. "It wouldn't have been so lame if I had hired them," came Maher's withering response."

The National Post's Vanessa Farquharson reports from the RELIGULOUS press conference:

"Reporters began by clarifying some terminology — was this film meant to question religion? Challenge it? Debunk it?

"I don't think 'debunk' is the right word," said Charles. "I want to destroy more than debunk, just destroy the whole system."

"But it's kind of like we're throwing rocks at a giant wall that's not going to come down," added Maher."