Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic

New York Times: "In 'The Aristocrats,' Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza's brilliant essay-film on the world's dirtiest joke, Sarah Silverman provides one of the few genuinely unsettling and provocative moments. Stripping away the frame ('A guy walks into a talent agent's office ...'), she tells the joke from inside, from the perspective of someone for whom it is not funny at all. Which makes it funnier than ever, as well as decidedly squirm-inducing. In 'Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic,' she tries, with mixed results, for a similar effect. The film, directed by Liam Lynch, is basically a recording of a one-woman show Ms. Silverman performed last year at a North Hollywood theater, with a few musical numbers and backstage sequences thrown in for the sake of variety. The songs include a mocking ode to the stars of pornographic movies, which Ms. Silverman performs in a velvet evening gown; a perky sendup of racial sensitivities; and a version of 'Amazing Grace' in three-part multi-orifice harmony. Ms. Silverman's comedy is built, to a large extent, on the discrepancies between her appearance and her material. It's not just that she is reasonably pretty. She also comes across, at least at first, as nice, smart and responsible - the kind of girl (never mind that she is almost 35) your parents would encourage you to be friends with or to take to the prom, more teacher's pet than Heather. But then she opens her mouth, and the vilest, filthiest things you've ever heard come pouring out of it. Scatology! Baby killing! Masturbation!"