Al Franken: God Spoke

Larger than life

By GERALD PEARY | October 4, 2006

3.5 Stars

AL FRANKEN: GOD SPOKE Al speaks, and he’s a mensch.

Like Michael Moore, Al Franken is a larger-than-life left-of-center commentator who attracts a worshipful following. Unlike Moore, as this winning documentary attests, he’s a mensch. Chris Hegedus (The War Room) and Nick Doob love their subject, and this is the most affectionate of portraits. We see Franken bring on the charm, the wit, the intelligence while hosting a progressive radio show arguing with Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, showboating before troops in Iraq with his Saddam Hussein impersonation, and hanging at home with his wife. All along he ponders whether to reclaim for Democrats the Senate seat in Minnesota once held by his late friend Paul Wellstone. Would he have to sanitize himself beyond recognition — that is, disown his repertoire of hilarious filthy jokes? (One caveat: a debate with Ann Coulter that was originally in the film has been deleted because Ms. Coulter refused permission for it to be shown.)

On the Web
Al Franken: God Spoke's Web site:http://www.godspokefilm.com/

Related: Sundance kids?, Ditto drama, 00-Panetta, More

Topics: Reviews , Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

More Information

Watch the trailer for Al Franken: God Spoke (QuickTime)

ARTICLES BY GERALD PEARY

REVIEW: LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE | March 12, 2013
A decent little movie, but hardly a major one, from Iran's master filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, who, self-exiled, here shoots in Tokyo with an all-Japanese cast.

REVIEW: THE GATEKEEPERS | February 26, 2013
Great cinema journalism, The Gatekeepers was the National Society of Film Critics' winner for Best Documentary of 2012.

REVIEW: THE LITTLE FUGITIVE (1953) | February 27, 2013
It's the 60th anniversary of this pioneering American independent feature, which greatly influenced both cinema vérité documentarians and the French New Wave.

REVIEW: HOW TO RE-ESTABLISH A VODKA EMPIRE | February 20, 2013
Daniel Edelstyn launched this film project after reading the spirited diary of his late grandmother, Maroussia Zorokovich, whose wealthy Jewish family split from Ukraine as the Bolsheviks were taking control.

REVIEW: HAPPY PEOPLE: A YEAR IN THE TAIGA | February 12, 2013
What Robert Flaherty did with title cards in his silent Nanook of the North , Werner Herzog manages with declamatory voiceover in Happy People : romanticization of the austere, self-reliant lives of hunters and trappers in the icebound north.