My Scientology Movie

Lacking a hardball attitude that could crack the protective armor of a crazy but ubiquitous cult—as Alex Gibney did in his forceful 2015 documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (VL-3/16)—filmmaker John Dower’s shambling, semi-farcical My Scientology Movie is less about the secretive and reportedly brutal organization and more about how British journalist and documentarian Louis Theroux copes with being repeatedly stymied by Scientology enforcers. Theroux pairs up with former member Marty Rathbun, who is now dedicated to exposing Scientology leaders and their monstrous training of subordinates. Working as a mentor for Theroux, Rathbun becomes frustrated by the journalist’s persistence in asking repetitious questions while not getting much closer to infiltrating Scientology or blowing the roof off it. And there’s a reason for that: the somewhat hapless Theroux keeps getting intercepted by Scientology security when he does even simple things like park on a public road. Unfortunately, the film devolves into a series of similarly silly scenes, which may underscore the general insanity among the cult’s army of protectors, but does not constitute a hard-hitting exposé. Optional. (T. Keogh)