My Scientology Movie (2016) poster
2016 · documentary

My Scientology Movie

Directed by John Dower1h 39m2016
ElsewhereIMDb6.614kRT89%Metacritic62
  • brisk
Movie DNA

Neutral, kinetic, measured documentary, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, intimate, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

After being denied access to the Church of Scientology's headquarters, documentarian Louis Theroux teams up with ex-Scientology official Marty Rathbun to stage re-enactments of alleged abuses within the organization. Theroux soon discovers that the church is watching his every move.

Our read · My Scientology Movie (2016) reads as a neutral, kinetic, inventive documentary entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, cold in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of My Scientology Movie

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want Theroux's awkward lens on a paranoid, powerful church.

ends unsettlingit leaves you shakensteady all the waygrips by minute 5attention 4/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upcringe humiliation

Skip it tonightCult exposés that get meta and uncomfortable aren't your thing.

If My Scientology Movie is your film
Going Clear (2015)
Definitive Scientology investigation with archival depth
(You want Louis's comedic tension)
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019)
Theroux probing charismatic institutional deceit
(Tech fraud feels less lurid)
Tickled (2016)
Bizarre investigative rabbit hole with real danger
(Internet subculture weirdness repels you)
DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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