Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic (2005)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

All the Outrage

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

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Sarah Silverman Jesus Is Magic is a combination of a comedy concert movie like Richard Pryor in Concert (1979) and a performance piece like Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia (1987) -- and the best movie of its kind since either of them. A combination of stand-up material and little sketches, films and musical numbers, Jesus Is Magic is above all a quotable compendium of offensive remarks. But Silverman's masterful timing and booby-trapped delivery are her real trademarks; she could be talking about candy or gardening, but instead she talks about rape, 9/11, racism, religion, Nazis, Judaism and anal sex. Like Lenny Bruce, she appears to be the only one prying open our sacred cows and getting away with it. It helps that she's a bright-eyed, freckled, toothy beauty, perhaps the most astonishingly gorgeous woman ever to play the stand-up circuit. She has appeared in several movies (School of Rock) and TV shows (Greg the Bunny), but nothing that quite captures this side of her. Probably nothing else ever will. (Bruce himself never had much of an acting career for the same reason.) I could quote some of her material for closing, but instead I'll just add that she even managed to offend Roger Ebert, so don't miss this.