Al Franken: God Spoke

"Al Franken: God Spoke," directed by cinéma vérité filmmakers Chris Hegedus and Nick Doob, is a sketchy but often entertaining record of satirist Al Franken's campaign to counteract what he perceives to be a right-wing conspiracy of lies and disinformation. Does Franken's sarcastic counter-rhetoric simply replace one campaign of disinformation for another? Ladies and gentlemen, start your blog engines.

The movie -- which follows the former "Saturday Night Live" comedian hosting his left-wing Air America radio show, peddling his best-selling book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" and stumping for then-presidential candidate John Kerry during the 2004 election campaign -- amounts to a political love-in. Franken's darkest moments amount to his distress at Kerry's presidential loss and an explosion of temper at the 2004 Republican Convention when he yells at affable conservative commentator Michael Medved.

But there is some delicious rancor. At the same convention, conservative journalist Sean Hannity expresses appreciation for a free country in which Franken "can voice his opinions about Sean Hannity on his five stations and I can respond on my 450 stations." And talk-show host Neal Boortz calls Franken "a yappy little worked-up Shih Tzu." It's clear that, even if he can't match the might of The Right on the airwaves, Franken has established himself as one of its favorite whipping boys; there's a sort of guerrilla's satisfaction in that.

-- Desson Thomson (Sep. 29, 2006)

Contains profanity.