Review of Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic (2005) by Lili S — 22 Nov 2005

I saw Sarah Silverman in [i]The Aristocrats[/i] and I thought she was pretty funny and then I saw a clip for this movie and that looked pretty funny too so I thought what the heck, I'll see it. Wrong wrong wrong. Not what the heck. Because you know what? Being funny for one little segment is a lot easier than being funny throughout an entire feature length movie.

This film is mostly just the sort of thing you'd see on an HBO special with Silverman taped doing live stand-up at some Hollywood club, but it's padded out with lame musical numbers and a skeletal "plot" to bring it up to a very long 72 minutes.

Here's Silverman's entire act: Ready? Ok, Silverman looks younger than she is (she's 34) and she delivers her lines in a naive little girlish voice, see? But what comes out of her mouth is all raunchy and offensive and provocative and "edgy". Which automatically makes everything she says...be it about the Holocaust, September 11th, rape, midgets, or Martin Luther King...absolutely hilarious, see? Because it's her saying it, see? In her sweet little voice. Looking all innocent. And we're just always so surprised by the juxtaposition of her childlike demeanor with the filth spewing forth from her mouth that we just laugh and laugh and laugh.

Do you get it? Or should I keep explaining the hilarity to you over and over again?

It's not that I don't think Silverman is ever funny. It's just that her schtick gets kind of old pretty fast. And maybe it's just part of her act, but she seems just a little too pleased with herself for my taste. Sarah hearts Sarah, that is for sure. An extended scene where she makes out with her image in the mirror of her dressing room doesn't help matters. How exactly is this supposed to be funny?

While the bit from the comedy club is at least tolerable, the filler sketches are horrendous. In one, Silverman entertains a group of elderly people at a nursing home, singing a song with a chorus of "you're going to die soon" as they stare at her with frozen smiles. Then she shows up at her 96-year-old grandmother's funeral and starts angrily shaking the corpse. Hilarious, right?

I sat stone faced through most of this movie. I broke a smile exactly twice: once during a riff about a grooming practice particular to strippers, and the second time during the credits when a shy, gawky teenage "understudy" stood on the stage tentatively delivering Silverman's material. My opinion of Silverman as a writer and a comedian plummeted during this film. Somehow, I don't think that was her intent.