More Religulous Reviews Hit The Web, Calling It “Brilliant” And Sure To “Stir Raging Arguments”
As reported byJeff Wellsawhile back,Religuloushas started playing in two theaters (one in NYC and one in Claremont, CA) to fulfillRule 12of the Academy’s eligibility rules for Best Documentary nominations. The theaters themselves are out of the way (apparently the one in New York is all the way up on 181st St.) and the film is playing with very little accompanying publicity, as it doesn’t officially open until October 3rd; indeed I spoke withChud’s Devin Faraci this morning, who saw the film last night in Claremont, and he told me that the theater was half full (although those in attendance enjoyed themselves), and that the film appeared to be playing off of a videotape, indicated by soft edges and poor sound quality.
As a consequence of these early showings, some more reviews are starting to roll in (other than the oneswe’ve already seen), giving some insightful impressions into the film.Devin’s review of Religulouswent up last night and he gave the movie a 9 out of 10, saying:
As a piece of agitprop op-ed filmmaking, Religulous is often brilliant. It’s definitely hilarious, sometimes to the point of leaving me wheezing and giggling. It’s also essentially irrefutable – the argument between Maher and the believers really boils down to ‘Why do you like chocolate?’ The problem is that nobody makes huge political and military decisions based on how they feel about chocolate. The film’s final moments, where Maher make a passionate exhortation to like-minded doubters to stand up against the irrationality that has gripped our world…could be galvanizing to that silent 16% of Americans – a minority, by the way, bigger than blacks or Jews.
Several episodes back on the/Filmcast, some of us expressed concern that the film was playing to Maher’s weaker aspects as a comedian: namely, his ability to conduct humorous, on-the-spot interviews. Devin seems to think that the film plays to his strengths as an interviewer his HBO show,Real Time, which is a relief to hear. Additionally, Faraci says that the film’s interviews with religious types seem fair and don’t feel like “Gotcha”-type shakedown pieces.
Robert Koehler’s reviewalso went up on Variety last night, calling the ending extremely provocative. According to Koehler:
As a Christian myself, I’m very interested to see how this film treats religion, and whether it will further galvanize the modern Atheist movement, personified by the likes of Dawkins and Hitchens, that seems to be gripping America these days.
