Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, March 12 Credit: Photo By Gary Miller

SARAH SILVERMAN: JESUS IS MAGIC

D: Liam Lynch

Documentary Feature Spotlight

Maintaining a straight face is everything for a comic, something professional provocateur Sarah Silverman blows by breaking into song-and-dance in the performance doc Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic. The film works best when it simply trains the camera on Silverman as she performs the one-woman show with her appealing mix of deadpan and ditzbomb. Here, she’s playing to the audience, not the camera: an important distinction lost in the musical numbers inserted throughout. Every time the film cuts away to an elaborate musical video, in which Silverman plays dress-up and croons into the camera, momentum is lost (it doesn’t help that they’re not as smartly written as the set). Winning an audience’s favor is hard, keeping it harder yet. Frustratingly, goodwill toward the comedienne leaks away under the deadweight of the filler songs and material that grows staler as the set wears on.

This article appears in March 25 • 2005.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...