Religulous

Political commentator Bill Mahrer ruffles some feathers in Larry Charles' new documentary, Religulous, a film dedicated to questioning blind faith and poking God-sized holes in the hearts of Americans.

Bill Maher interviews Jesus at the Holy Land in Orlando, Florida.

It was hard to find someone to see this movie with me. My sister, a person with an open aversion to religion, rejected my invitation, saying that she was not willing to watch Bill Maher be a complete asshole for an hour and a half.

But I must say, before the asshole, Maher's a comedian. And he did wonders with the topic at hand.

Take Mahrer, used to sitting behind a desk yelling at other loudmouthed pundits on his HBO program, and put him at the front of a single-wide trailer in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is inside a roadside chapel, standing before six or seven rustic looking truckers in collapsible chairs. Suspicion is written across their tired faces.

His strategy is simple. Maher asks only for explanations of their belief. The what's, the how's, and the why's. His straightforward, go for the jugular approach could be mistaken for arrogance and condescension. But Maher's reaction to their responses is often times met only with a reiteration, allowing the interviewees to hear the holes in their own reasoning.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of the documentary are the reactions caused by questions that merely scratch the surface of the religion debate. Early on Maher asks "And why is faith so good?" to which a trucker rises from his seat in a huff. "Look, I don't know what your movie is about but I don't like it and I'm leaving," he says, a commonly held reaction to Maher's questions.

Interviews are conducted all over the world, from the desk of one brainless, square jawed Republican senator, to a babbling orthodox Jewish rabbi who denied the Holocaust--the only interview Mahrer walked out on shaking his head in defeat and disbelief. He interviews clergy, doctors, and unforunately, and maybe to his discredit, the kind of faceless Americans that populate places like The Holy Land, a biblical amusement park in Orlando, Florida. These scenes seem too easy, and Maher self-serving.

I wouldn't reccomend this film for people that aren't already engaged in the debate on religion. But for those who can stomach Maher's opinion, there are many belly laughs to be had in the absence of reverence.