Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic

A concert film built from Sarah Silverman's stage show. The structure is not straightforward: short fictional scenes and musical numbers are set between the stand up passages, with Silverman singing, playing her own character, and stepping outside the show. Liam Lynch directs. Her method was contested then and still is. She stands on stage as a sweet, innocent girl while sentences about racism, genocide and rape come out of her mouth. The point is not the joke but the innocence of the person saying it: the target of the satire is her own character. To a viewer who does not see that distinction, the film is simply offensive. An incident a few years earlier had already opened the argument: Silverman used a racial slur inside a joke on a television programme and drew a large reaction. That argument sits behind the film. It was small and had a limited release, but it moved her name to the centre of American comedy. Who it is for: anyone interested in the provocative tradition in stand up and in American comedy culture of the 2000s. Who it is not for: anyone who wants distance on sensitive subjects. The material is deliberately uncomfortable, and the musical sections break the rhythm.