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Al Franken: God Spoke

2006, Movie, NR, 90 mins

Al Franken: God Spoke: Review

There's a story to be told in Al Franken's transformation from smarty-pants Saturday Night Live personality to political commentator on the scrappy liberal radio station Air America, but Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus — both longtime associates of cinema verite legend D.A. Pennebaker — fail to find it. Their fly-on-the-wall documentary opens with a satirical sketch in which God himself summons Franken to take on the conservative political establishment, and follows him from the publication of his satirical 2003 book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right through to his on-the-ground Air America coverage of the 2004 presidential campaign. It concludes with Franken's announcement that he's considering entering the political arena as a candidate. Much of the running time is consumed by Franken's high-profile battle of words with self-proclaimed conservative "culture warrior" Bill O'Reilly, the volatile and high-profile host of Fox News Channel's politically charged talk show The O'Reilly Factor. Furious that Franken included his photo on the cover of Lies (alongside President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and pundit Ann Coulter), O'Reilly reportedly encouraged Fox News' subsequent lawsuit, which hinged on Franken's use of the phrase "fair and balanced," the network's corporate slogan. The suit was quickly dismissed and the publicity actually boosted Franken's sales. Doob and Hegedus capture Franken learning the ropes of radio reporting by crossing swords with Coulter and Sean Hannity, the conservative half of Fox's political-debate show Hannity & Colmes; they also document his run-ins with a small group of anonymous men in suits who systematically block his access to the 2004 Republican National Convention. Franken's longtime admiration for the late Paul Wellstone, the two-term Democratic senator from Minnesota who died in a plane crash shortly before the conclusion of his 2002 campaign against Republican challenger Norm Coleman, clearly informs his decision to consider taking on Wellstone in 2008. But the film ends before Franken can actually take the step from commentator to participant, which adds to its overall unfinished and unfocused air. --Maitland McDonagh