Al Franken: God Spoke (2005)

Critic Reviews

• Stanley Kauffmann, New Republic

  This film by Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus forces us to make some decisions about him. For myself, I find him generally gross, in person and in manner.

• Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

  A documentary in search of a story.

• Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times

  Often entertaining.

• Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

  What this documentary lacks in intent, insight, and surprise it makes up for in thoroughness.

• Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News

  Franken doesn't allow the knee-jerk predictability of his liberal pronouncements to deflate the great gasbag that he becomes as the movie proceeds.

• Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

  Most of this doc is content to wander through Franken's recent show-biz resume, to no particular end.

• Christopher Campbell, Cinematical

  A humorous, but more importantly illustrative, documentary about the weight of the media -- especially the comedic media -- on the last presidential election.

• Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena

  A inteligência de Franken é notória, assim como seu pavor à retórica da direita norte-americana %u2013 algo que o filme ilustra de maneira burocrática. Além disso, sua falta de foco leva-o a parecer um mero instrumento de propaganda, o que é lamentável.

• Kam Williams, Mount Desert Islander

  This uncritical bio-pic presents Franken as more of an intrepid intellectual on a mission than a funnyman in search of laughs, leaving one to wonder whether he's contemplating a rumored run for the U.S. Senate in his native Minnesota.

• Kam Williams, EURWeb

  This uncritical bio-pic presents Al as more of an intellectual on a mission than a funnyman in search of laughs, leaving one to wonder whether the purpose here was to makeover Al into a political figure for his rumored run for the U.S. Senate.

• Eric Monder, Film Journal International

  Entertaining cinéma-vérité piece

• Rob Thomas, Capital Times (Madison, WI)

  There's so much previously available material used that for a while "God Spoke" looks like the first documentary assembled entirely from YouTube clips.

• Les Wright, culturevulture.net

  Always engaging, often insightful, [and] at times deeply moving.

• Mike Russell, Oregonian

  I haven't seen this much smug, awkward laughter and bathos since, well, Man of the Year.

• Marta Barber, Miami Herald

  Whether one agrees with his point of view or not, it's a message worth hearing.

• Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

  A documentary about the comedian and satirist who sees himself as a leftward leaning crusader for Truth and Justice in an era of Lying Liars.

• Thomas Delapa, Boulder Weekly

  Feisty, quick-witted and quixotic, Franken takes on such right-wing demigods as Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity.

• Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star

  The documentary skims the surface, appreciating Franken's crass, troublemaking modus operandi. This would be OK if the doc were crammed with hilarious footage, but Franken comes off as more droll and bitter than clever.

• Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City

  With his nearly nonstop, self-congratulatory monologues and his seemingly insincere attitude, he comes off as every bit as much an insufferable blowhard as his conservative counterparts.

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