Religulous

Last night Candace and I saw an opening night screening of Bill Mahr's new religion documentary Religulous, which I had been eagerly awaiting. To our surprise, the theatre was pretty much packed, and the crowd was into the movie enough to clap for it at the end. That said, the film isn't showing in too many locations throughout the city, and this WAS an arts cinema, but still...

Regardless, the movie was really good, especially considering how well it combined a Richard Dawkins-esque argument against religion (socially speaking) with a good bit of humor, which I'm sure is one of the main reasons this film made it to the theatres and Dawkins' documentaries didn't. Despite its running time of only 100 minutes or so, the movie seemed much longer, most likely due to the lack of a real narrative and the fact that documentaries are usually a bit on the dry side.

In addition to reigniting my passion for spreading the reason-over-faith mentality, this movie also really encouraged me that maybe things are going to keep drifting further and further from religion, in both our country and the world at large. I mean, if something this direct and blunt can make it to the theatres, isn't that progress?

One final point that must be made about the film that certainly helped it earn big points with me was that a small but meaningful portion was shot in Amsterdam and involved or mentioned a number of famous Dutch political figures. You know, it's the little things, like seeing the words "avondwinkel" and "rondvaart" in an American movie, that really make me happy. Add this to a healthy dose of reason, and you've got a great movie on your hands as far as I'm concerned... =)