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Critics Consensus: My Scientology Movie offers a personal perspective on the controversial religion whose lack of investigative depth is more than balanced out by its sense of humor and all-around entertainment value.
Critic Consensus: My Scientology Movie offers a personal perspective on the controversial religion whose lack of investigative depth is more than balanced out by its sense of humor and all-around entertainment value.
All Critics (77) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (68) | Rotten (9)
My Scientology Movie, the newest film by the British documentarian Louis Theroux, vibrates with effort-with machinations and stunts and stitch ups that all seem intent on producing an "aha" moment that remains tantalizingly out of reach.
New look at well-charted territory adds just enough to justify its existence.
One of the best documentaries of the year.
While My Scientology Movie provides a very entertaining tour of some of the questions that swirl around Scientology, viewers who've followed the story through the years will find little that's new or unexpected.
Theroux raises troubling questions about psychological warfare and how devoutness shades into fanaticism.
At times it plays like an extended skit on "The Daily Show"; yet its disorder also makes its insights - like how strongly the church's training sessions resemble acting classes - feel refreshingly organic.
My Scientology Movie provides a laugh-filled surrealistic experience that suitably issues a complementary alternative to the more methodical documentary Alex Gibney's Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.
As journalism, it's a goof, but the film uses a conceit that offers a curious consideration of the Church's theatrics.
Luckily, the Louis Theroux-led flick takes a unique direction and completely shatters our expectations.
It might not be a perfect documentary, but it gets us inside the Church, by hook or crook, and lets us examine what dark secrets they are hiding.
Unlike other documentaries about Scientology, this one is more like a character study of a few people making a movie than it is an examination of the Church of Scientology. It does explain some aspects of it, but not in the usual pedagogical way.
Things do get better, thanks to his (Louis Theroux's) legendary patience, his entertaining baiting of church members in their own lair, and his success in persuading a number of former church members to spill the beans.
It's well made, but due to the secrecy of the church, we know no more about it by the end of the documentary.
Super Reviewer
Covers a slightly different path than Going Clear but really keeps you on the edge with intelligence. I honestly thought this might not suit me but this cult has unlimited wealth to topple most of their opponents. Everybody should be watching this just like going clear.
I love Louis's documentaries, but this one is a dud that goes nowhere. Maybe if you have absolutely no knowledge of Scientology, you could learn something, but I've read quite a few books about it, and this had nothing new to say. It's not entirely Louis's fault- he was never going to be able to get information. The movie within a movie was pointless too, but I guess it was to pad out the little he had to work with.
Whatever the common knowledge or conjecture that might exist about Scientology, this film is interesting and amusing but probably adds little. It alleges that Scientologists set out to ruin those who oppose them, that members pay a lot of money, that it is a form of cult brainwashing and that it uses intimidation to control people. The film would have made a stronger case if it took a more forensic rather than anecdotal approach. A lot of what it shows resembles the kind of bullying that people can witness in everyday life without venturing very far. Some of it is like those neighbourhood disputes that you see in infotainment news; it is funny in a low brow way. The film's star witness, a former leader in the Scientology organisation, is guarded in what he divulges; his emotional reactions are the most interesting part. A young man who had been more of a foot soldier gives a pragmatic account. You are also shown pictures of the Scientology buildings, including some vast, gothic real estate, and of glittering events that look like a cross between a political convention and a Hollywood awards ceremony. The training practices that are alleged are like something out of the 1950s, and there is a lot that sounds like unsophisticated science fiction. You see old videos of Tom Cruise - perhaps the main drawcard for audiences wanting celeb gossip. But the film suffers from superficiality, and a little too much theatre and self-referencing to be a cutting documentary. That might mean that Scientology has the power to keep its secrets; and/or that the film was not courageous enough. You could view the whole thing as a sorry tale of how our wealthy society wastes its bounty on arguments like these. Perhaps more worrying is the question of whether a belief in a master race with a supreme leader, whatever its label, which thinks that it's their way or the highway, could still get a foothold after all of the harsh lessons of modern history.
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