Undeterred by the Church of Scientology's reputation, Louis Theroux sets out to explore the religion that's favoured by Tom Cruise, John Travolta. However, when met with a lack of access, Theroux comes up with an ingenious way of making sense of it all - using actors to recreate pivotal scenes from the Church's history by a former Scientologist.
It's clear when watching My Scientology Movie that Louis Theroux has very little in the way of an agenda against anyone. More than anything, Theroux approaches his subjects with a sense of openness and understanding. He means well, he just wants to know what drives his subject and why they are the way they are. In fact, the opening scene admits that Theroux had hoped to be the first journalist to break through the Church of Scientology's wall of secrets and have an open, honest dialogue with them. He cleverly acknowledges that, were this any other religion, access wouldn't be an issue. Here, it's the whole focus of the film and gives the film a sense of purpose.
In order to understand the Church, Theroux recruits Marty Rathbun, a top-ranking Scientologist who agrees to help Theroux stage a number of recreations of key moments in Scientology's history. Almost immediately into the film, Theroux receives a threatening legal letter from Scientology. Nevertheless, Theroux is undaunted and continues to casting Scientology leader David Miscavige with the help of Rathbun's recollections of the man. We're shown, through Rathbun and archival footage, that Miscavige is a deeply angry, violent personality who is prone to wild outbursts and screams regularly at his subordinates. Rathbun looks on, pushing the various auditioning actors to become more violent and more brutal, making for some classic Theroux moments. All while this is happening, we see Theroux looking on with a sense of realisation about what he's up against.
The idea of recreating scenes from history using actors and a person directly involved is nothing new or inventive, of course. Theroux has freely admitted that he copped the idea straight from The Act Of Killing, but where that film used genre to recreate the horrors of the war, here it's more of a straight recreation of what exactly happened. Theroux's cast of actors play out a scene in the Hole, an unofficial prison for Scientologists who have failed Miscavige and are subjected to humiliating acts in order to atone for some unknown crime or sin. All while this is happening, we see Marty Rathbun - Theroux's eyewitness - in the background and nodding along. Before long, it becomes clear that Rathbun not only witnessed these events, he himself was probably an active participant in them. More interviews follow with other ex-Scientologists, some of whom are not all that complimentary about Rathbun.
Visually, director John Dower makes full use of its setting - Los Angeles - and the fact that there is little in the way of knowledge on Scientology. One scene, for example, is set in a sterile white room and shows a number of actors going through the process known as auditing - which is essentially a counselling session. The use of incidental music just adds to the intentional humour of it all, and Theroux's politely perplexed expression just filters through these scenes in an effortless way.
As a documentary, it tells us nothing you couldn't find out from about five minutes of searching on Wikipedia or Google. Indeed, Alex Gibney's Going Clear was a much more pointed and deliberate attempt to shine a light on the workings of the Church Of Scientology. Here, Theroux seems more happy just to buzz their buildings and wait for an answer for them, content with the fact that he can't get access or a straight answer from them. What made his other works so fascinating was access - something that's missing here. When he visited the super-prisons in Miami or met with the Westboro Baptist Church, he was brought in and specifically shown around. He acted as, on the surface anyway, as an impartial and curious guide to it. Here, he's hitting a brick wall and playing it for laughs.
In all, My Scientology Movie is a reasonably entertaining watch. Given the controversy surrounding its lack of a theatrical release here in Ireland, it almost feels like something like an anti-climax when it's viewed in that context.
