Review: ‘My Scientology Movie,’ a film by John Dower and Louis Theroux

While it doesn’t break much in the way of new ground when it comes to exposing some of the darker elements of one of the world’s most controversial religions, journalist Louis Theroux and director John Dower’s documentary My Scientology Movie makes up for its lack of revelations by looking at things from fresher perspectives. Instead of mounting another overview of the organization L. Ron Hubbard built from the ground up that demonizes the entire organization, Theroux posits that the nobler, self-help aspects of Scientology have been lost thanks to a volatile, self-centred power structure. Instead of another carpet bombing on all potentially dubious aspects of Scientology, Theroux instead focuses his energies on what he perceives to be the head of the snake: church leader David Miscavige.

My Scientology Movie begins with Theroux attempting and failing to get input from the church when he tries to make a more balanced and potentially sympathetic look at the divisive organization. Theroux begins from a genuine place, and quickly sees firsthand that the notoriously secretive and litigious Church of Scientology will go to great extremes to protect itself from prying outsiders with no ties to the organization. For help in figuring out why this is and what makes the church so equally fearful and feared Theroux turns to former Church of Scientology executive and enforcer Marty Rathbun (and several other former members, none of whom have quite the same impact as Rathbun). Marty, who left the church despite being one of its biggest supporters after being allegedly abused and branded as seditious by Miscavige, provides context and helps Theroux to stage recreations of some of the church’s tactics of control like auditing, the production of propaganda videos, the high ranking SeaOrg, and the internal branding of anyone questioning the church as a bunch of bitter liars.

The employing of Rathbun proves to be a double edged sword for Theroux. While the film boasts some charged recreations of Scientology practices and rituals through the use of actors playing Miscavige (and noted church member Tom Cruise) and Marty’s direction, it’s clear that Theroux’s primary helper has his own end game and unresolved issues. Rathbun, who still believes in many tenets of Scientology despite his justifiable hatred towards Miscavige, can’t quite bring himself to come clean about everything that he did while under the employ of the church. By all accounts, Rathbun wasn’t someone to be toyed with, and sometimes his frustration with Theroux’s line of questioning throughout adds an element of danger. It’s never fully certain if the former Chief Inspector and primary attack dog for the church wants to come clean about his past and Theroux is just asking the wrong questions, or if Rathbun still has some block that won’t allow him to be fully honest with everyone just yet. Theroux’s attempts to confront his primary collaborator on his past are sometimes pushed a bit too far, but it also shows just how far Rathbun went in the church that he can withstand such pressures.

In a post Leah Remini, Paul Haggis, and Alex Gibney world (all of whom have produced lengthy works about Scientology over the past several years) the lengths to which the church will go to protect its image don’t strike as surprising anymore. When Dower and Theroux’s mock productions start getting filmed by outsiders against his wishes, legal notices start arriving, and church efforts to haze and discredit Rathbun intensify via his involvement with the documentary, it’s hard to be shocked. The biggest problem with My Scientology Movie is that there isn’t much left to expose about Miscavige or the church. Anyone going into the film hoping to uncover something new will be disappointed, but thankfully Theroux gets around the lack of new insights by basing his research around the nuts and bolts psychology of what draws people to the church in the first place.

Through his struggles and carefully orchestrated, recreated set-pieces, Theroux gets to the heart of Scientology’s fear and appeal in equal measure. There’s an understanding here that when viewed through the proper sociological lens, Scientology might not be better or worse than most other organized religions. It’s a sentiment that’s underlined nicely when Theroux reminds the viewer that “every religion carries the DNA of its own demise.” The quest for any sort of divinity or a higher plane of spiritual awakening can stir something pathological in people, and My Scientology Movie and its open indictment of Miscavige as a suspect figurehead speaks best to larger issues than the ones found within the titular organization. There might not be too many specific skeletons left to uncover in the church that would shock anymore, but as a portrait of absolute religious power being used as a tool for corruption, Theroux’s film wisely takes the personal and psychological approach instead of continually traversing already covered ground.

My Scientology Movie opens on Friday, February 17 at The Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in Toronto, on February 24 at the Globe Theatre in Calgary, and on April 14 at the Bytowne in Ottawa. It screens at the Salt Spring Film Festival in Salt Spring, BC, March 3^rd through the 5^th. It will be available on VOD and iTunes in Canada in June.

Check out the trailer for My Scientology Movie: