MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE

“You’ll never work in this town again” I hear being said to the brave and possibly professionally foolhardy actors who appear in Louis Theroux‘ mad, bad and brilliant re enactment documentary, MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE.

Following a long fascination with the religion, the beguilingly unassuming Theroux won’t take no for an answer when his request to enter the Church’s headquarters is turned down. Inspired by the Church’s use of filming techniques, and aided by ex-members of the organisation, Theroux uses actors to replay some incidents people claim they experienced as members in an attempt to better understand the way it operates. In a bizarre twist, it becomes clear that the Church is also making a film about Louis Theroux.

By utilising a group of actors working alongside key former members to try and gain an insight into what it actually feels like being a Scientologist was actually in keeping with the actual story because Scientology was founded in Los Angeles by a sci-fi writer also desperate to be a film director. L Ron Hubbard wrote screenplays and in the 1950s initiated Project Celebrity to enlist Hollywood actors to spread his gospel, and today several of its most famous disciples are A-List stars. Even their current leader David Miscavige started as a camera operator in the Church’s own movie studio.

Theroux put feelers out with the community of disaffected ex-Scientologists, some of whom still believe in aspects of the Scientology religion, but feel that “Official Scientology” has lost its way under the influence of David Miscavige. It occurred to Theroux that the “Hollywood” character of Scientology – its recruitment of actors; its use of Tom Cruise as a role model and poster boy; its dissemination through glossy promotional films – might be the key to making his film.

L. Ron Hubbard himself had always nurtured a dream of making it as a Hollywood director. And so it felt logical and true to the spirit of Scientology to use Hollywood techniques – casting calls, actors, improv sessions, reenactments – to create a sense of Scientology from the inside, filming it all in and around Los Angeles.

An ace up the sleeve of the film makers was the participation of Marty Rathbun – who was at one time one of the most senior executives in Scientology, the “Inspector General” – and in his willingness to go on a journey of inquiry – asking questions about faith and apostasy and revolutionary morality – while tolerating the emotional roller coaster of Theroux’ probing questions and also the attention of hostile Scientologists who began taking an interest in what the Theroux crew were doing.

As Theroux postulates and shows in this damn fine and funny film, “In the course of making my film I came to believe I was being tailed by private investigators, someone in Clearwater, Florida (Scientology’s spiritual mecca) attempted to hack my emails, we were filmed covertly, I also had the police called on me more than once, not to mention a blizzard of legal letters from Scientology lawyers. And yet, at every step I remained open to Scientology’s good points and tried to see it for what it is: a system of belief that is not so different from other religions, capable of enlarging the soul as well as crushing the spirit; a tool for wickedness but also of kindness and self-sacrifice.”

Like Tickled, MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE has the piss take humour of a mockumentarty, but the suspense and sense of sinister paranoia is palpable.It will be interesting to see what happens to the career of the actor who portrays Tom Cruise.