Quiet Color

by greg yolen

Greetings, QC readers, from beautiful Hollywood! Yoles, your faithful film correspondent here, blogging from the belly of the beast.

This past weekend, Republican stuffed blouse Sarah Palin was doing what assholes typically do on Saturdays, drinking a Starbucks non-fat latte (light foam, you betcha,) when she looked down at her paper cup to see on it a printed quote, from Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State. “There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t support other women,” Palin recited at a rally Saturday, marking the first time in American political discourse that a candidate has ever quoted a paper fucking cup. Purposefully misquoting Ms. Albright, Palin made a shameless play at female voters, best summed up as “vote me in, or answer to Satan, bitches.”

GOD KNOWS BY EL PERRO DEL MAR:

At a time in our nation’s history when such remarks are uttered straight faced by those seeking our highest offices, and when publicly swearing to the divinity of a certain carpenter with nice ab’s is all but required of our candidates, Bill Maher’s anti-religious comedy polemic “Religulous” is a welcome work of dissent, as incisive as it is hilarious.

This isn’t a film about God, or the lack thereof. Peoples’ varied conceptions of the Grand Wazoo actually play no role in the subject matter. It’s Maher’s wise decision to aim his camera at the convolutions mankind has grafted onto God, and all the institutionalized bullshit resulting. “Religulous” is not a cinematic probe of any Deep Questions; it’s an assault on anyone claiming to know their answers.

Maher is a stand-up comic whose “Real Time” on HBO has established him within audiences mainly comprised of cabernet-drinking, premium-channel-affording coastal elites, and therein, it seems, lies the challenge of “Religulous,” and potentially its big problem: Maher may very well be preaching to the choir, here… Or something more secular than a “choir” … Preaching to the, uh, bunch?

For a film of such incendiary potential, Maher chooses his targets carefully. His interviewees range from truckers whose converted big rig chapel can barely accommodate their girths, to controversial Muslim hip hop artist Propagandhi, to a Vatican astronomer. And the format of the film (which grows repetitive around the 90-minute mark before bouncing back to a bracing finish) is that of acquiring, and then dispatching targets of varied wackiness. Maher’s criticism is limited to no one religion, and for each character he interviews, the goal is the same: to force them into defending a completely illogical position, and then saying, in so many words, “You cannot be serious.”

Fortunately, Maher is able to do this with good humor throughout, laughing along with his marks even as he collegially vivisects them. He’s unruffled without being condescending, sarcastic but not obnoxious. (Of course I might view this differently if it was my faith being challenged on camera.) Necessarily, this is material that a great deal of the audience may find offensive no matter how it’s handled, but Maher slaughters sacred calves with aplomb, and does a terrific job of gearing the humor right into the middle. With the help of director Larry Charles (“Borat,”) pop references and cutaway jokes abound – lozenges for Maher’s unapologetic disdain, and at points, his obvious disgust. Mm boy, does that disgust go down easy!

But Maher’s message, I fear, will be muffled. While he states in the film’s conclusion (don’t worry, not giving anything away,) that this is a document aimed at moderates – the casual Catholics or high holiday Jews – and though his ultimate demand is that these people work up the courage to push back at the hopeless ideologues, (Cough Sarah Palin speaks in tongues I’m dead serious cough cough!) the question becomes, do these people know who Bill Maher is, and would they ever see a film like this? Will this ever reach people who could truly benefit from such a funny, fearless, honest look at organized religion? Or will it be another “Fahrenheit 9-11” – an enjoyable, but ultimately impotent curio for the liberal left?

That’s the rub, readers, although there may be reason to be optimistic. “Religulous” finished impressively in the weekend box office in limited release, while the even more godless “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” took the gold. See this movie. Laugh, debate, get angry. This is America gosh darn it, guys and gals. That’s what it’s all about.

God bless you, Mister Maher.