Religulous

Bill Maher's Religulous is hilarious. It also stands to be wildly offensive to anyone who is even mildly sensitive as regards his or her own religious beliefs. In the trailers the movie presents itself as being more of a critique of religion than it really is. By my estimation it is about 30 % serious critique, 70 % mockery/satire, which isn't to say that the latter content is not very funny, because it is.

Maher travels the country interviewing representatives of various religious groups about their controversial or unusual beliefs. He is, predictably, very straightforward and wastes no time making his subjects uncomfortable. He does a pretty good job of this on his own, but some creative editing serves to make things even funnier for the film audience. Also, in case you are wondering why the founder of the Creationism Museum, the founder of Exchange Ministries or a prominent spokes-rabbi for the Neturei Karta would ever consent to an interview with Bill Maher, some light is shed on this question here.

The subject of Maher's criticism is ostensibly the concept of religion in general and its effects on society. The observant viewer will note, however, that his interviewees are almost exclusively practitioners of the Abrahamic traditions. One assumes that Eastern religions were left out because a.) they are traditions less vulnerable to the criticism Maher is leveling in this film or b.) due to time constraints it made more sense to focus on the religious traditions the film's audience would likely be most familiar with. Probably a mixture of both, but it isn't directly addressed.

Overall the movie succeeds in its goal of satirizing religion, but it is still very likely that most reasonable viewers will feel like Maher is being too hard on his subjects, mocking them instead of engaging them. Yet, this is exactly the type of movie being made here. There are legitimate critiques that play out (especially when Maher's subjects simply fail to mount a counterargument even when there is an obvious one to be made), but the movie is ultimately a comedy. Which is why Maher's closing monologue, linking religion in general to the worst of society's problems, doesn't have much power and actually sounds rather vapid. The film is a successful and relevant piece of satire, not the kind of reasoned and sober analysis that would be necessary to prop up his closing remarks. The intelligent viewer can, however, judge for himself how successful Maher's argument really is.

Anyone who ever got a laugh out of the old Daily Show feature "This Week in God" will definitely enjoy this film as will anyone who finds that type of cultural satire to be funny and frequently on-point. Like-minded folks will already agree with Maher and understand what he's getting at, but the more staunchly objective viewer would be wise to ignore Maher's overzealous narration and not take the whole business too seriously. It is, after all, a comedy.