Catching up on some trailers we missed…
Does believing in Jesus, like believing in Santa Claus make you a naive sap? That appears to be the posit here (with the help of some Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” naturally).
Kooky director Larry Charles is back behind the camera again, but this time without Larry David or Sasha Baron Cohen on the other end. His most recent subject is none other than HBO’s late night talk show host and serial offender to the religious right Bill Maher, in their new documentary “Religulous.” The trailer for Charles new project looks like a Michael Moore documentary, if Moore’s were funny and didn’t cause chronic depression. Charles is somewhat of a comic genius and it has certainly showed in the past with his work on “Seinfeld,” “Curb your Enthusiasm” and his first fauxmentary, “Borat.”
Keeping in line with both the controversial style of humor and political views and the smarmy, aren’t-I-so-clever mien he’s so fond of, Maher looks like he’ll probably continue to alienate all of Middle America with this one (see his ratings). His logic-based and slightly offensive suggestions are sure to arouse excitement in most of his faith oriented interviews, which knowing Charles’ direction are bound to make everyone watching extremely uncomfortable, but unable to look away (see: ‘Borat’). But again, is it all just preaching to the converted? (pardon the pun)
Will Charles make us cringe in embarrassment (and disgust) like his last documentary and his direction on Curb? Or will Maher’s unctuous, “look ma!, no hands!” style of smug comedy turn off even his most ardent constituents? One things for sure, he has a talent to boil down controversial and (arguably) complex subjects into ridiculous and absurd broad sweeps that make even the most intelligent advocate for faith look dumb as fuck, unfair or not.
– Spencer Martin
Fuck yes.