Al Franken: God Spoke: Critic Reviews

... best viewed as an investigation of the phenomenon of ideological celebrity, with Mr. Franken as a willing case study.

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.

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

The film is most compelling for its suggestion of how politics and showbiz are at once incestuously entwined and, perhaps, irreconcilably different.

But Kerry did not win, and for Franken fans, the target audience here, the memory of that event may hurt too much to laugh.

The film is worth seeing for footage of Bill O'Reilly seeking sympathy from Ann Coulter, who makes maternal noises with a mischievous glint in her eye.

Often entertaining.

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

Offers a portrait of this complex man that is -- dare we say it? -- fair and balanced.

A cinema-verite portrait that proves more celebratory than revelatory.

There is a lot of preaching to the converted in Nick Doob and Chris Hedges' Al Franken: God Spoke, an adoring and fairly haphazard look behind the scenes with the comedian and liberal gadfly.

Fans of Franken as a comedian and/or as an Air America radio host, will find plenty to enjoy.

The film only sporadically succeeds in providing biographical information or thematic depth, but Franken is such a witty and thoughtful presence that these flaws don't matter greatly.

The filmmakers capture Franken's gradual transformation from cool satirist to impassioned activist in what turns out to be a verite amble through a pivotal year in his life.

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

A inteligencia de Franken e notoria, assim como seu pavor a retorica da direita norte-americana %u2013 algo que o filme ilustra de maneira burocratica. Alem disso, sua falta de foco leva-o a parecer um mero instrumento de propaganda, o que e lamentavel.

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.

Entertaining cinema-verite piece

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

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

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

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