I promised myself some laughs and found them in two very funny and thought-provoking films.

Bill Maher’s Religulous is a comedocumentary (yes, I made up that word) that traced Maher’s roots of religion and how and why he turned away from religious belief. Of course Maher wanted to have some fun along the way, so he took sarcasm to new heights as he attacked Catholicism, Muslimism, Mormonism, and any number of other isms by examining their myths and traditions and shining a critical light on them. This is by no means a documentary; it is completely biased and meant to criticize what he sees as silly beliefs. But there is a serious underlying message, which he touches on throughout the film and puts forth very strongly in the final five to ten minutes. Religions are dangerous. Religions kill. And if we don’t do something soon to change our course, religions will destroy us. He makes a good case. Highly recommended.

The Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman House showed My Winnipeg this weekend, Guy Maddin’s semi-autobiographical, semi-serious film about Maddin wanting desperately to escape his hometown of Winnipeg. I have friends in Winnipeg and strong ties there, and I found this film downright hysterical. Maddin looks at his own life and personal history along with the history of Winnipeg, “the coldest city on Earth,” and pokes fun at the place, the people who live there, and some of the absurdity that can be found in any hometown anywhere. This movie has a great mix of fact and fiction, sometimes leaving the viewer lost between the two, and is creatively written, filmed vividly in black and white, and marvelously haunting, desperate, funny, and ambiguous. A great story for all people who have ever felt trapped in their hometowns and, for any numbers of reasons, couldn’t escape. Highly recommended.

Well, life isn’t always funny. I’m a big fan of Jean Paul Sartre’s writings, and I came across his 1939 short story “The Wall.” This is a moving piece set in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Sartre examines the hearts and minds of a group of prisoners condemned to death. The men are in prison and told they will be executed the following morning. The title refers to the wall used for firing squad executions. The story is tragic, absurd, and ironic, just as you would expect from Sartre. It’s also compelling and dramatically written in stream-of-consciousness style. Sartre worked for the French resistance and was imprisoned by the Germans during WWII. “The Wall” doesn’t get a lot of attention as far as Sartre’s writings go, but it’s a great story and can be read in its entirety here. Recommended.