My Scientology Movie

Title: My Scientology Movie

Director: John Dower

Released: 2015

Plot: Documentary following Louis Theroux in his attempts to make a film about the Church of Scientology only to find his attempts being blocked at every turn. Now teaming up with former senior church official Mark Rathbun he attempts to create reconstructions of incidents within the church.

Review: Starting his career working as part of Michael Moore’s “TV Nation” team Louis Theroux would soon go on to forge a name for himself as he immersed himself in America’s sub-cultures via his “Weird Weekends” series which saw him hanging with seemingly everyone from pornstars and wrestlers through to survivalists. Theroux also in his native England produced a series of intimate portraits of celebrity figures such as the former TV Magician Paul Daniels and most memorably Jimmy Savile many having fallen out of the limelight. However it was after these films that Theroux decided to drop his humorous and mischievous antics from his documentaries and instead make more serious films and its this tact that we still find Theroux in for his big screen debut.

While it might seem a fairly straightforward topic to make a documentary about, especially with the wealth of footage out there relating to the church and their often less than orthodox practises. Instead Theroux makes the unusual choice of imitating “The Act of Killing” which featured Indonesian Genocidaires re-enacting their crimes and here large portions of the film are dedicated to the casting of actors to play parts such as the church’s leader David Miscavige aswell as possibly the most recognised church member Tom Cruise. Its actually quite shocking how much of the film is dedicated to these sections and it makes for a jarring experience to see Theroux breaking away from his established formula especially when there is never any proper explanation of why these scenes are being included.

Opening to Theroux explaining that he had originally intended to make a film exploring the beliefs and its various practises, he finds himself unsurprisingly denied all access by the church and in doing so instantly damming themselves from the opening onwards with such fierce secrecy surrounding their practises that no other organised religion so fiercely fights to protect. Even the highly controversial Westboro Baptist Church welcomed Louis into the church on two occastions for “The Most Hated Family in America” and its follow up “America’s Most Hated Family in Crisis” but alas this was not to be perhaps unsurprisingly with “The Church of Scientology” who much like Seaworld in “Blackfish” only condemn themselves from the start by not wishing to participate leaving us to form our opinions from the former members involved and the tactics used by the church to block the films production.

Mark Rathbun once more seems to be the go to guy for former Scientologists as here he once more provides the entry point into the world of Scientology as he chalks up another documentary appearance after previously being seen in the arguably more superior “Scientologists At War” and the thorough “Goung Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” the latter of which the Church threatened to block the film from being shown in the UK. As a former high level member of the Church Rathbun was perfectly placed to give some of the most indepth accounts of the church’s practises many of which he shares throughout the film, especially being hounded by the church’s “Squirrel Squad” whose methods revolve around filming and harassing their targets at all times, techniques which again they attempt to use here to block filming only to find themselves equally matched by Theroux who has seemingly zero qualms about facing off against any of the members he encounters filming them as they film him in celuloid stand off’s while giving the audience the kind of interactions we where hoping for especially those familiar with Theroux’s previous films.

Despite the seemingly fearless nature which Theroux has shown when it comes to tackling his various subjects and I was expecting to see more of the same here, but ultimately outside of the a few inevitable stand off’s with members of the church sent to harass the production we don’t get to see anything that we haven't seen in other documentaries on the subject, though Theroux might be the first to actually annoy these camera crews enough that they’d rather walk away than deal with him. Ultimately the church largely resort to threatening the production with legal threats which Theroux attempts to address in person, only to find himself blocked by the church’s security once more and making the viewer only wonder more what exactly the church is so fiercely scared of being exposed by the film while there is an air of paranoia from the start as actress Paz de La Huerta stumbles burbling about her acting career during an early conversation between Theroux and Rathbun in a wonderfully surreal moment, which sadly might also be the highlight of the film, especially as Theroux wonders if she had been sent by David Miscavige as a “honeytrap”.

One of the most frustrating aspects outside of the general lack of direction here comes with the sound which constantly seems to dip during the re-enactment sections leaving me to constantly fiddle around the volume controls as I was either struggling to hear what was being said or being blasted by the sound returning to normal.

Ultimately this is a film which enters with big ambitions only to remain small in scope as the reinactments and numerous casting sessions feel like nothing more than filler to cover for the lack of progress that Theroux made in cracking the church and while he might cite that the intention of the documentary was to try and provoke a reaction from the church we learn nothing new here that we haven't seen in other documentaries on the subject. True it might be amusing to see Theroux face off against various members, but this one is really for the die hard fans of his work than those seeking to know more about Scientology.

Hell House

 

Title: Hell House

Director: George Ratliff

Released: 2001

 

Plot: Documentary following the youth group of the Cedar Hill Trinity Church based in Cedar Hill, Texas who on Halloween put on a “Hell House” in their attempt to save the souls of the local residents who attend the event.

 

Review: It constantly surprises me how the Christian community view the issue of censorship where often the more radical members will call for the banning or censoring of anything that they see not fitting within their belief structure and has previously lead to things such Mary Whitehouse spearheading the campaigning which lead to the “Video Nasties Act”. However bizarrely such concerns over censorship don’t seemingly apply when it in somehow links to their own belief as highlighted by various groups calling for the rating of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” to be lowered so their kids could see it, despite it containing some truly brutal and horrific scenes which seemingly they had no qualms about exposing their kids to.

 

Another prime example of this is the group at the centre of this documentary, whose “Hell House” see’s them putting on performances depicting scenes of high school shootings, abortion and AIDS to name but a few of the controversial topics which the group are happy to cover as part of their drive to increase attendance at church services by seemingly terrorising the local population with the prospect of going to hell.

 

One of more surprising aspect of the documentary is that director George Ratliff does not set out to belittle or make fun of his subject, the way that so many films focusing on the more radical Christian groups have previously done in the past. Instead Ratliff is happy to just play the observer and provide a platform for them to explain their reasons for putting on such a grotesque spectacle especially one which seemingly views no topic as being too controversial to be featured as highlighted by one of the group questioning the inclusion of high school shootings so soon after Columbine only for another to insist that it only makes it only the more relevant for their cause. It should be noted though that despite the occasional extreme opinion cast by the group they are largely painted as being full of good intention as well as truly believing that what they are doing is the Lord’s work.

 

Following the process in its entirety we join the group in their planning stages, before heading into the auditions for cast members who will be acting out the various grim scenes with there seemingly being no shortage of fresh faced congregation members eager to play the role of the girl raver whose date raped or the guy dying of AIDS. From here its on to the building of the “Hell House” which they build from the ground up constructing a whole house to stage their production which is honestly nothing short of impressive much like the size of the crowd that they manage to attract most drawn in by the prospect of a shocking or controversial spectacle than perhaps the intended religious aspect.

 

The real trick of the “Hell House” though after they have finished traumatising each group with their graphic performances is to offer the group at chance at salvation from their sin by joining members of their church for prayer and bible study. As to be expected some of the performances spark less than favourable reactions from some of the people attending who come away feeling that someone is dammed instantly for being gay or that the message is more mixed than the organisers would believe it to be. However instead of the expected big showdown and shouting match between the two groups we expect it to be, we instead get a surprisingly calm discussion as one of the organisers states that

 

“damnation is ultimately a matter of a personal decision whether or not to accept God, regardless of the misfortunes of one’s circumstances.”

 

A reminder that this group are far from the radical Christian groups we have come to expect from the protest held by the Westborough Baptist Church documentaries like this and in particular “Jesus Camp” which the initial reaction is to draw comparison to but outside of the performances being graphic and certainly questionable in taste the church seemingly have no agenda outside of spreading their message and ultimately recruiting more parishioners to their church.

 

A fascinating documentary which manages to be insightful about its subject without feeling the need for vilification, while providing a Halloween viewing alternative from the usual horror fare 

Red State

Title:  Red State

Director:  Kevin Smith
Released:  2011
Starring: Michael Angarano, Kyle Gallner, Nicholas Braun, Michael Parks, John Goodman

Plot: Three horny teens Travis (Angarano), Jared (Gallner) and Billy Ray (Braun) who heads out to the countryside to meet up with an older woman, who has invited them out with the prospect of casual group sex, unaware they are being lured into a trap by the local fundamentalist church, lead by the highly controversial Pastor Abin Cooper (Parks). While attempting to escape one of the boys a violent stand off between the FBI and the church is triggered, with the boys now finding themselves caught in the middle as they try to escaping the increasingly escalating situation, especially with the church members refusing to go without a fight.

 

Review: Bursting onto the independent film circuit with his debut film “Clerks”, Kevin Smith emerged as an exciting new voice in independent cinema, with Smith soon developing a reputation for films featuring clever dialogue and frequent pop culture references, though despite his early films showing great promise, he soon seemed to be selling out his writing talent for the easier laughs of dick and fart jokes with many of his fanbase seeing the controversial “Dogma” which poked fun at Catholism and Catholic Dogma as the high water mark of his talent, especially with the films which followed such as the underrated “Jersey Girl” frequently failing to hit the same levels of humour as his earlier films. An option which was seemingly reinforced as the humour seemingly started getting lazier as Smith began favouring toilet humour over clever dialogue which had made his earlier films so memorable let alone quotable to a whole generation of film fans. Now just as I had given up on Smith actually making a film comparable to his early work again, especially after seemingly hitting rock bottom with “Cop Out”, he goes and releases “Red State”, a film which is not only a radical return to form for Smith, but also a bold change in direction as it also marks Smith’s first supposed venture into the Horror genre.

“Red State” is almost like Smith returning to the same indie roots from which he first emerged, with the film being made for 4 million his lowest budget since “Chasing Amy” and it’s also without the financial or distribution assistance of the Weinsteins who have supported Smith’s career on nearly all of his films, with Smith taking up the duties of self distributing the film Stateside via travelling roadshow, before releasing the film direct to DVD, citing it a response to the costs spent by studios on advertising, yet it seems that he has changed his mind for the UK release which has saw the film being promoted via numerous TV spots and Phone Box advertising for a full cinema release.

When it comes to drawing comparisons Smith seems to be making it very clear on were he is drawing his inspiration from, seemingly setting his sights on infamous pastor Fred Phelps and the highly controversial Westboro Baptist Church, who frequently cause controversy by picketing the funerals of dead soldiers and gays, with the Phelps earning the moniker of “America’s Most Hated Family” and seeing Michael Parks giving passionate rants about the moral failings of America, it is hard to dispute that Smith has created a character who embodies the hatred of Fred Phelps, even though Smith has not openly admitted that the character is supposed to be Phelps, stating that he instead represents “A Phelp(s) like figure” aswell as that the film is about those same subjects, view points and Phelps own position taking it to the absolute extreme and turning this group of radical Christian into a bunch of gun hording and quick to anger fundamentalists. Still this did not stop Wesboro picketing the film, only to be greeted by a rival protest group comprising of Director Smith and fans who also significantly outnumbered the Wesboro group.

Despite starting out like a typical Smith esq plot and some mild toilet humour, as the boys set out in pursuit of casual sex with an older woman, it soon become alot more darker than anything we have previously seen from Smith, especially with the church members treatment of their captives, meanwhile the boys are soon pushed to the sidelines around the halfway mark with Paster Cooper and the FBI’s Special Agent Keenan (Goodman) stepping up to take over as the leads, which comes as a surprise especially after building up the three young leads, but when Goodman and Parks are responsible for the two strongest performances in the film it’s hardly detrimental, with Goodman looking to have lost alot of weight recently, but certainly none of his screen presence, as he gives a largely shouty performance here, as he tries to take control of the situation which continues to rapidly spiral out of control. Meanwhile the rest of the characters are generally given the bare bones of characterisation with the all of Cooper’s group being generally of the same mind set and mainly provide targets for the FBI agents, while the local police get slightly more attention with fun characters such as the local sheriff desperately trying to cover for his closeted homosexuality, which Pastor Cooper taunts him with to keep him under his control.

One of the main themes being examined here is the power of religion and more importantly how it can be twisted to suit one man’s crusade, a popular subject in recent years having so memorably been explored in “Martyrs” as it is here if perhaps not as so deeply especially with Smith opting for an ending slightly less biblical then original planned one which included giant armoured angels and the four horsemen of the apocalipse all putting in an appearance.

What is especially intresting here though is that Smith has clearly got over his supposed fear of directing action, having stated in previous interviews that he generally avoided it due to the amount of effort it requires to direct such scenes, which only adds to the surprise here, when essentially the second half of the film is one big shoot out sequence, which will either make or break this film for you depends on how much of an action fan you are, while also seemingly echoing the 1993 Waco Siege, while no doubt breaking the record for the largest amount of shots fired in a single movie.

Despite Smith claiming that this is a Horror movie it’s claim that is way off the mark, for despite some elements of Horror and the setup in the early half of the film, all of these element vanish as soon as it turns into a siege movie, so anyone going into this one expecting to be scared whitless are only going to be painfully disappointed as this one is essentially more of a popcorn action flick than anything even close to Horror, but then the same could said for the “Askew Universe” fans coming out expecting to see appearances by Jay and Silent Bob, as this film seemingly belongs in a whole other universe to those other films and it’s also one were even Ben Affleck or any of Smith’s usual acting troupe don’t appear, almost as if Smith is keen to prove that he can stand on his own as a director without the support of his friends.

While “Red State” is bound to isolate the more serious movie goer, who likes some substance with their movies and while certainly not a serious dissection of certain more fanatical groups, “Red State” is still a blast of a movie which if you liked what you see in the trailer, it will certainly not disappoint you and while perhaps the ending might be a bit of a letdown, the journey there is so much fun it is easy to overlook and compared to the plans for the original ending seems focused morally on ensuring that the power stays with the right group. Still if your looking for a fun night out you could do a lot worse than this, so why not switch off your brain and enjoy as this is some pure cinematic junk food for the soul!

Elwood's Essentials #4: Dogma

Title: Dogma

Director: Kevin Smith

Released: 1999

Staring: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Salma Heyek, Chris Rock, Alan Rickman, Jason Lee, George Carlin, Alanis Morissette

Plot: Exiled to Wisconsin, two fallen angels Barleby (Affleck) and Loki (Damon) having discovered a loophole in the newly revised Catholic Dogma which will allow them back into Heaven after being cast out by God, unaware that they could potentially undo all creation. Upon discovering this Metatron (Rickman) aka the voice of god, tasks abortion clinic worker Bethany (Fiorentino) with stopping them, while she soon finds herself aided by Rufus (Rock) the thirteenth apostle, Serendipity (Heyek) a muse with writers block and Prophets Jay (Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith)

Review:  To approach this film I think its best to apply Kevin Smith to the many worlds theory which posits the existence of an infinite number of Kevin Smiths in an infinite number of universes. Now with this in mind I would like to think that at least in one of them he would be still making films of this standard, rather than churning out his lazy dick and fart joke favoring movies of late while generally bashing critics in public rants. Still there was a time when Smiths career was one of a symbiotic relationship between his two styles as he would make a smart dialogue driven comedy (Clerks & Chasing Amy) and follow it up with one of his fart and dick jokes favoring comedies (Mallrats & Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) before then making one of his smarter comedies, a pattern which worked well and saved audiences from becoming bored with one style, while keeping Smith’s worse fresh and interesting. Alas there must be a trigger point for change and that was “Jersey Girl” a severely underrated smart comedy, which was so largely bashed it seemingly shook Smith’s confidence as since that movie he has concentrated on making solely fart and dick joke comedies, aiming for easy laughs over the smart comedy which helped his original indie film get noticed in the first place, something seemingly also forgotten by Smith judging by how “Clerks 2” was shot in his now favoured style over the original films memorable style.

From the start it is clear that Smith is not pulling any punches when it comes to poking fun at his source material which in this case is Catholic Dogma, with the opening joke of the Catholic church bringing in a number of changes including the now legendry “Buddy Christ” as part of their Catholicism-WOW campaign to revitalize interest in the church. No doubt this is also the get off point for anyone slightly sensitive about having their belief system questioned, something I have always held the firm belief that questioning your beliefs only makes them stronger and Smith himself raised a devout Catholic really lets his knowledge of the faith shine throughout, though needless to say it did upon its release piss off a whole bunch of Roman Catholic groups in particular the Catholic League, who were more than happy to brand Smith as being worse than Hitler and the KKK combined for daring to make such a film. Still for those of you not concerned with such things or more willing to see the funny side of religion there really is a lot to enjoy here, especially when Smith is not making fun of religion just for the sake of it, but also using the film as a platform to raise his own questions about aspects of his faith without at the same time feeling as if he needs to turn it into a sermon to do so. Still perhaps if these religious groups looked a little further than the surface of the film, they might have been less quick to arms, especially when Bethany is in many ways representing the atheist view point, as she questions the existence of god largely thanks to her own misfortunes, with each of her companions playing their part in restoring her faith, with the exception perhaps being Jay and Silent Bob, whose appearance is more to do with continuality of the Askview universe than plot necessity. At the same time implying that god’s true form is Alanis Morissette, let alone that she is a woman might only undo this much like the idea of a thirtieth apostle.

The plot is broken into two main threads with the first following Bartleby and Loki as they journey across country on their mission to get back into heaven, along the way scratching off a few remaining grudges such as the cleansing of the Mooby’s board of directors. The second thread follows Bethany and her ragtag group as they try to track down Barleby and Loki, with At the same time while Bartleby and Loki’s actions could be seen as putting them in the position of being the bad guys of the film, ultimately they are merely pawns of a larger game and even the supposed bad guy of the film Azrael (Lee) is far from the big evil you’d expect especially considering how little screen time he’s given almost as if Smith is trying to imply that the lines between good and evil are more grey than black and white and that it is often our own actions which determine the side in which we stand.

The cast are all memorable in their individual parts, despite Smith later commenting on the difficultly he had working with Fiorentino whose role as Bethany he wished he’d given the role to Janeane Garofalo instead, while even more disturbingly considering Joey Lauren Adam aswell, whose raspy tones would have no doubt driven me over the edge. Still it is Alan Rickman whose presence threatens to overshadow the rest of the cast with his fantastic performance as the sarcastic and generally pissed off Metatron (aka the voice of god), who once again manages to elevate even the most simplest of dialogue. Equally fun are Affleck and Damon who bounce off each other and transfer their off screen friendship onto the screen as they provide many of the films best moments and the decision to follow these two as much as Bethany’s group ultimately proves to be a great one, especially when they are just so much fun to hang out with. 

Unsurprisingly controversial for its stand point on religion, the film remains one of Smith's strongest movies to date and ultimately a sad reminder of what could have been, had Smith continued to make films of this intelligence, something which Smith has only recently hinted of being capable of producing again with the sadly overlooked "Red State". Still if your not too firm in your religious stand point there is a lot to enjoy here while proving that you can make a film about religion without needing to get on a soapbox to make your point and plus how seriously can you really take a movie with a rubber poop monster in it?