TIFF REVIEW - Religulous

I’d been waiting all night to say this: the line-up for Religulous was ridiculous. Awesome. But it was interesting to me that Bill Maher and Larry Charles’ long-awaited comedic plebiscite on religion would be one of the hottest tickets in the early days of the Toronto International Film Festival. If you’re thinking about going to the encore showing on Monday, heed this advice: go early, as early as you possibly can. Or else be one of the hundreds of people in the rush line waiting with a combination of anticipation and pessimism to see one of the funniest films of the year.

That is if you are of a certain mindset of course. Saturday’s showing was in the Ryerson theatre, and I found myself hanging around on campus a couple of hours before show time. I was walking along Gerrard after dinner and saw a group of people unwrapping placards taken from the trunk of their car. I thought to myself, “No way. We don’t have a genuine religious protest here at TIFF, do we?” Yeah we did actually. This was not a new idea to me actually, a couple of years ago, the Guelph International Film Festival’s opening night selection of The Art of Resistance drew protest from a local Catholic group. The reaction both times was more or less the same: “We’ll pray for you.” “Oh, that’s nice.”

I have a feeling though had the protest group been on the inside of the theatre, they would have really had something to fume about, because the crowd reacted to the film uproariously. Liberal? Yeah probably. Secular Progressives? Sure, why not? But the vast majority of the film is not really bashing religion so much as exposing the mentality of the lunatic fringe; the hypocritical minority like the Reverends Ted Haggard and Jimmy Swaggart to the extreme ends like Osama bin Laden and Jerry Falwell. Really, there aren’t many who are going to rise in defence of these guys. There’s a universal understanding that these are “How not to…” examples. What’s worse is there’s more.

Maher starts off the film with a visit to the Holy Land, specifically Megiddo, a hill top in Israel where the Book of Revelations says the final battle between good and evil will take place; Megiddo, of course, being the root of the word “Armageddon.” From there it’s pretty much a Maher road show as he visits sites both holy and wish we were holy. He talks to the parishioners at a truck-stop chapel in the Southern US, a hope, skip and a jump from the creationism museum in Kentucky, where scienticians attempt to mind meld science with the Biblical version of history.

Somewhere in between he stops at Holy Land Amusement Park in Florida and interacts with Jesus, or rather the Christ endorsed substitute actor playing him. And Jesus actually gets good one past Bill and Maher gives him the credit. If anything it shows the comedian’s willingness to debate and be challenged, which is more than what can be said for one of the Park’s PR people that tries to shuffle Maher and his crew away from the good Christian tourists. It would not be the last time the Religulous team would be greeted unwarmly; they were removed from the Vatican by the Church and the lawn in front of the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City by the “Mormon Fuzz.”

Indeed there were a great, many, hardy laughs to be had during Religulous. The comedic sensibilities of Maher, as well known through his numerous stand-up specials and TV show Real Time, remain intact. And director Larry Charles really was the perfect choice to helm this film. Much as he did with Borat, he hones a lot of the scattershot political commentary and concentrates into a single, potent burst. As much as you’re laughing at Maher’s one liners, you’re also laughing because of the particular way Charles cuts the scene, or adds an appropriate cutaway gag or title card. During the Q&A Maher said that there were more laughs that we, the audience, missed while we were laughing. Good enough reason for a “Second Coming,” offered Maher.

Now I’m a big Maher fan. Obviously Real Time isn’t shown on TV in Canada but somebody does take the time and effort to edit it into six parts and put it on You Tube Saturday morning. It’s just another reason to look forward to the weekend for me. Obviously, I’m part of the target audience, but still Maher’s views on religion are probably where I depart from him the most. Like where I disagree with noted atheist Richard Dawkins, Maher characterizes all people of religion as stupid or “sheep.” Now, I’m not very religious myself. I’m of the opinion that as long as you’re not using faith to promote harm or bigotry, then believe what though wilst; even if it’s the flying Spaghetti Monster from space.

The wall-to-wall laughs in the first 95 minutes of the film give way at the end to verbal tirade that could easily be called a call to arms for the rationalists of the world to overthrow religion. Easier said than done, but like I said, it was the tone I disagreed with. I know what it’s liked when you get riled up about an issue when you think you’re right and everyone else is wrong. But pictures of religious figures, good and bad, intercut with scenes of global nuclear apocalypse are the visions of the film the protestors outside had going through their mind as they chanted, “Pray for Bill Maher,” as they marched in a small circle.

But hey, Catholics aren’t the only ones capable of forgiving, and thus so do I. Truthfully the nearly entire film is so funnily subversive it’s hard to argue with it. Truly the Reverend leading the ex-gay movement is kidding himself by believing that his homosexuality is choice that can be cured with prayer. The self-styled Christ Jesus can surely be seen as a charlatan as he exposes that he could as easily play the anti-Christ and still do it as well as he’s playing the retuned Messiah. And Bill Maher isn’t the devil or some other kind of demon in disguise, but he sure is a stinker.