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Silverman's 'Jesus' pushes limits
Fri Nov 11, 8:25 AM ET
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Leaving no sacred cows untipped, comedian
Sarah Silverman takes on September 11,
AIDS and the Holocaust, among other nominally verboten stand-up topics, in her compact concert film "Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic."
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While not in possession of the deadly comic marksmanship of a
Chris Rock, Silverman, whose shtick involves cushioning those caustic barbs in a wide-eyed, innocent, childlike delivery, manages to strike the bull's-eye enough of the time to validate the squirm-inducing subject matter.
Still, this Roadside Attractions film, which is being released without an MPAA rating, is definitely acquired-taste material and will perform best in the hipper, bigger rooms.
The challenge of being a practitioner of shock comedy is the ability to draw your audience as close to the edge of the abyss as possible without losing them, and there are more than a couple of occasions where the ballsy Silverman definitely has them teetering on the brink before masterfully managing to reel them back in with seconds to spare.
Considerably more miss than hit, meanwhile, is the incorporation of several deliberately tasteless musical numbers riffing on material in her act, with Silverman in
Tracey Ullman-style, pop-rock guises.
It might have been the intention of director Liam Lynch, who made his name in music videos and commercials, to depart from the traditional, straight-ahead concert film (the stand-up portion was shot over seven days at North Hollywood's historic El Portal Theater), but those musical interludes interrupt the flow of Silverman's carefully pitched act just as distractingly as the heckling of a drunken patron.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
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