Al Franken: God Spoke

Directors Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus follow a year or so in the life of the popular comedian turned scourge of the right, from the 2003 publication of his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them through the 2004 presidential election and Franken’s first thoughts of running for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota in 2008. The movie owes more to Franken’s personal appeal and pugnacity than it does to anything Doob and Hegedus do in chronicling it; the result is entertaining as a record of the Franken you already know and love, but you won’t learn much that you didn’t already know going in—which begs the question of why the movie was made in the first place. How could Doob and Hegedus have a camera in Franken’s bedroom as he wakes up on Election Day, yet give so little sense of intimacy with the man?