Louis Theroux has built a career on examining bizarre subcultures, creating trust to open up dialogues. At times these people hold quite contemptible views such as interviews with Neo-Nazi’s, Black Nationalists, prison inmates of San Quentin and infamous Westboro Baptist Church.
No matter though what an individual’s odd belief, Louis never tries to pass judgment or dehumanise said person. He only seeks to put in perspective, his and the audience’s own lack of understanding on the subject; to better understand what makes them hold such views.
The biggest problem then with Louis Theroux’s Scientology movie is its inability to use Louis’s greatest strength, his ability to ask questions and converse. Thanks to the church’s fiercely private nature he is unable to really penetrate any open dialogue.
His best shot is standing on a public road next to Gold Base, a Scientology headquarters, described more like a prison camp to re-doctrinise its members. His hope being that the security tries to move him for trespassing. This leads to one of the only real notable moments in the film where Louis gets his chance to talk to a Scientologist that he recognizes as Catherine Fraser, the x-wife of a member who left.
The exchange while thrilling is confrontational from the very beginning. Only really exposes the tactics of the Church to use a method known as “confront and shatter, suppression.” Used against people it deems as an S.P. or a “Suppressive Person.”
This is often hilariously ineffective against Louis so when Scientologists do turn up in the film with cameras to record the cameras that are recording them? It becomes like some weird interview dance where Louis takes two steps forward and they take two steps back, all while avoiding engaging in questions.
This is disappointing and it gets old quickly. The film does try to come up with a compromise though as Louis teams up with Mark Rathbun an ex-member who held a very high placement in the church. Together they devise a plan to try to dramatically re-enact the type of behaviour the leader of Scientology movement David Miscavige displayed while Rathbun was at the church.
The actor they hire to play Miscavige, Andrew Perez, does a really good job of tapping into the self-righteous and paranoid aspects of its leader. He is also used to highlight some of the practices used at Gold Base to threaten and abuse members. One inspired performance sees him shoving, slapping and screaming at a group of actors on a makeshift set.
A lot of the drama I felt was lost though with Louis and Mark being in the scene at times or interrupting while things were being played out. Much of it feels cheaply staged and is not trusted to hold the film together. Even an actor hired to play Tom Cruise is never even utilised – my guess would be due to legal fears.
The rest of the film sees them further badgered, harassed and followed by cars with tinted windows. The pathological behaviour of its members does nothing to help their image but is nothing new from what is already known. Louis does the best he can within these limitations exposing the farcical nature of the group in an entertaining way.
In the end, though, it really isn’t able to answer any more questions that haven’t already been exposed in the brilliant Going Clear documentary by Alex Gibney, which really should be watched first in order to get a deeper insight on Scientology. If you haven’t already, it may leave you a little perplexed.
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