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Al Franken: God Spoke (2006)
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Reviews Counted:54
Fresh:32
Rotten:22
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: This documentary traces Franken's transformation from humorist to activist with entertaining, if uneven, results.
Theatrical Release:Sep 13, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: From his USO tour in Iraq, to the studios of liberal radio network Air America and on the campaign trail, filmmakers Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus are granted entre to one of the most effective... From his USO tour in Iraq, to the studios of liberal radio network Air America and on the campaign trail, filmmakers Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus are granted entre to one of the most effective political satirists of our time. Franken fearlessly confronts pundits and politicians, blurring the boundaries between political satire and impassioned citizenry. Featuring a host of beltway big mouths including Ann Coulter, Michael Moore, Al Gore, John Kerry, Robert Kennedy Jr., Sean Hannity, William Safire, Karen Hughes and Henry Kissinger, the film is an hilarious look behind the front lines of the media wars during the most contentious election in recent history. But ultimately, the film is a personal drama of transformation, as Al Franken leaves his comedy days behind and moves from his seat in the sidelines to become a contender inside the political ring. --© Pennebaker Hegedus Films [More]
Starring: Al Franken, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved
Starring: Al Franken, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved, Michael Moore, Al Gore, John Kerry, Henry Kissinger
Director: Nicholas Doob, Chris Hegedus
Director: Nicholas Doob, Chris Hegedus
Studio: Balcony Releasing
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Reviews for Al Franken: God Spoke
... best viewed as an investigation of the phenomenon of ideological celebrity, with Mr. Franken as a willing case study.
Franken doesn't allow the knee-jerk predictability of his liberal pronouncements to deflate the great gasbag that he becomes as the movie proceeds.
Existing in the moment without inquiry or challenge, cinéma vérité fosters exactly the sort of refusal to think beyond the immediate that this film criticizes in right-wing dittoheads.
A better, less passé film about Al Franken's wife Franni forming the backbone of her husband's career lies dormant here, as does the man's rebel spirit.
The movie never gets around to answering its central question: namely, why has Mr. Franken decided to go to Washington?
But Kerry did not win, and for Franken fans, the target audience here, the memory of that event may hurt too much to laugh.
With his nearly nonstop, self-congratulatory monologues and his seemingly insincere attitude, he comes off as every bit as much an insufferable blowhard as his conservative counterparts.
A cinema-verite portrait that proves more celebratory than revelatory.
Somewhere beneath this hollow shell lies a real film about a gentle rebel with a cause.
What I was really itching for was for him to leave the political battlefield long enough to give us a scripted stand-up act as he'd do it for an audience at The Improv.
There's a story to be told in Al Franken's transformation from smarty-pants Saturday Night Live personality to political commentator on the scrappy liberal radio station Air America, but Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus ... fail to find it.
Neither as adroitly funny as Franken's comic routines, nor as notable as his conversion to the fine art of politics, this is a 90-minute 'What If?' with no discernible answer.
Most of this doc is content to wander through Franken's recent show-biz resume, to no particular end.
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