Interview. Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus.

"If you like Al Franken, you'll love this movie," Jonathan Marlow wrote when he caught Al Franken: God Spoke at SXSW earlier this year. "While I have no attraction for canned comments of this sort, the documentary entirely redeems such a clichéd phrase since it frankly portrays Franken as quick-witted and charming, taking any mild feelings you might have for the man to an entirely new level of appreciation (unless you're a humorless conservative, not unlike several of the folks he belittles in the film)." Now Jonathan (<--interview!) talks with Chris Hegedus and Nick Doob not only about this new one but also about how the nature of documentaries has evolved over the decades and about their early work with Hegedus's husband and partner, D.A. Pennebaker.

Related: Writing in the New York Times, AO Scott suggests that God Spoke is "perhaps best viewed as an investigation of the phenomenon of ideological celebrity, with Mr Franken as a willing case study. But to the extent that the ferocious polarization of which his fame is a symptom extends into the moviegoing public, the film is more likely to attract or repel viewers according to the sides they've already chosen."

Updated through 9/18.

Franken's "story really starts on Nov 2, 2004 - when America rejected John Kerry and when the comic made the wrenching if necessary decision to pursue political change from the inside," writes The Reeler. "By that point in the film, Hegedus and Doob are just winding down. Thus the paradox of God Spoke and of most contemporary liberal activism, really: It loses the plot." So he asks the filmmakers and their subject about this.

For the New York Press, Jennifer Merin talks with Hegedus and Doob as well.

Earlier: Reviews from David D'Arcy, Aaron Hillis and Gabriel Wardell. SuicideGirls' Daniel Robert Epstein interviews Franken.

Updates: From Andrew O'Hehir in Salon: Based on my conversation with Franken two weeks ago, I'd be very surprised if he didn't end up running against Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn) in 2008."

Also, Air America may be in trouble. Again. Franken tells Radar's John Cook he hasn't been paid in a while.

Updates, 9/16: IndieWIRE interviews Doob and Hegedus and, for the Guardian, Nicholas Lezard reviews Franken's The Truth, With Jokes.

Update, 9/18: Jeffrey Ressner has ten questions for Franken in Time.

Posted by dwhudson at September 14, 2006 5:27 AM