Marjoe / Thoth
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Movie Reviews of Marjoe / Thoth
Movie Review: Boring
Summary: 2 Stars
Eh. Marjoe's not particularly captivating (which one would assume the opposite of), nor is the editing/storytelling great.Movie Review: Big disappointment
Summary: 1 Stars
As an atheist I expected to enjoy myself learning how fundamentalist ministers exploit the faithful. And indeed Marjoe, the antihero focus of this lame documentary, does reveal a couple tricks of the trade. Mostly, though, the movie makers throw away the very special opportunities they had to explore the topic in any depth. They seem so pleased with themselves for gaining access to three prayer meetings, they just let the cameras roll, never bothering to TALK to any of the Christians whom they apparently regard with a mixture of amusement and contempt. The result is very boring and very uninformative.
Marjoe himself is a fascinating character, returning for a little more religious exploitation because that's the only way he has ever known how to make money. At the same time he's betraying the people he exploits, by bringing in the film crew, knowing that they're going to make a hostile documentary. He questions his own ethics briefly near the end, but in a facile, transient way. Any halfway decent interviewer would have explored his character in depth instead of just letting him shrug and change the subject.
No one ends up looking good. Marjoe is a self-admitted charlatan. The documentary crew are smug, shallow, and not very smart. The preachers are opportunists (although we never find out how cynical they really are, because none of them is interviewed--not one). The congregations at the prayer meetings are seemingly uneducated and credulous, yet we can't be sure of that, either, because none of them is interviewed--not one.
At least the members of the congregations believe in *something,* no matter how misguided it may be. No one else in this lazy, shoddy, film-school-level production seems to believe in anything.