Review of Religulous (2008) by Bryan W — 25 Feb 2010

It's clear from the beginning that Maher has an abundance of comedic material on religion that he's been dying to find a medium for, but it also becomes clear quite quickly that a documentary wasn't the right format. In fact, to present this as a documentary is to make a mockery of a format practically legendary for its contrived inaccuracies.

Without a doubt, Maher is amusing throughout and he has no shortage of quips, but several problems can be identified early on; the first is that Maher claims himself as an agnostic, stating "I don't know!" at various points throughout the film, when he is clearly a militant anti-theist. When this ruse is uncovered by his interview subjects, he stands behind the banner of simply 'asking questions' about religion rather than admitting that his mission is to make fun of people.

The second problem is that he chooses the most non-intellectual, radical interview subjects he can find when he's making jokes and reasonably intelligent people when he wants to support his own arguments. Furthermore, the interviews are cut for maximum comedic effect rather than for the sake of clarity, often making the subject look like idiots. Are they idiots? Given the cutting, we'll never know. On the same front, Maher only takes care to point out he was rejected for interviews at the Vatican, something that is hardly surprising considering his nature. With only one exception to the rule of finding idiots to interview in sight, we are left to believe there are no smart people who believe in god.

The final problem is the film's form, which I touched on before in talking about the cutting. Inserting subtitles during interviews makes them come across like episodes of The Daily Show rather than revealing discussions. After a breezy, loosely constructed first hour and a half, Maher pulls his hands from behind his back to reveal two tightly clenched pieces of ham so large that they physically drag the film to a halt; he literally preaches to the camera that this world needs to rid itself of religion to survive.

In contrast, it's easy to watch the film and come to the conclusion that the world needs to rid itself of idiots to survive. Funny it is. Informative it is not.