50
This stunt-driven nonfiction project rearranges the well-reported dirt on the church, placing it into the context of something considerably less useful: a documentary about how hard it is to make a documentary about Scientology.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
Village Voice by Daphne Howland
The film's a little choppy as Theroux takes side trips to interview other former Scientologists, but it comes together as a chilling look at America's most famous 20th-century homegrown religion.
75
RogerEbert.com by Godfrey Cheshire
This Louis Theroux-starring film belongs to the Michael Moore school of docu-making, in which much hinges on the personal viewpoint and observational wit of the on-camera investigator.
50
The only element that significantly differentiates this documentary from its peers is Louis Theroux's good-natured cheekiness.
70
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
My Scientology Movie relies on a shaggy, meandering charm. At times it plays like an extended skit on “The Daily Show”; yet its disorder also makes its insights — like how strongly the church’s training sessions resemble acting classes — feel refreshingly organic.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by John Semley
What enlivens My Scientology is Theroux himself: watching him stumble from one idea to the next, interact with intense actors pulling their best Tom Cruise grins, butt heads with Rathbun, bicker with church insiders and throw their own idiotic lingo back in their faces.
70
Los Angeles Times by Noel Murray
As he uses Rathbun’s old tactics against his observers, Theroux raises troubling questions about psychological warfare and how devoutness shades into fanaticism.
60
Theroux’s first big-screen doc is an entertaining affair, peppered with surreal moments and wry wit, but its elusive subject remains out of reach.
75
It’s hardly the last word on this scam and its hilarious embrace of the “Duck Soup” uniforms and the addled imagination and crackpot ideas of L. Ron Hubbard. But that’s the point.
80
It's all wickedly tendentious mischief, but when it's this gloriously funny, the points score themselves.