It doesn’t require much imagination to figure out what you’re going to get when you throw together Borat director Larry Charles, irreverent political commentator and comedian Bill Maher and a whack of world religion devotees (Muslims, Holocaust-denying Hasidics, Jews for Jesus, evangelical Christians, Satanists, et al.). And ultimately you’d be right. Poking fun at overly zealous folk is particularly easy in the era of George “I believe that God wants everybody to be free and that’s part of my foreign policy” Bush—however, it’s not unlike shooting fish in a barrel. Sure, Maher’s aim is true (and funny), but it can border on unsportsmanlike. The documentary is saved from the monotony of its self-congratulatory, equal-opportunity mocking by some gentler, more surprising moments. One occurs after a frank discussion with a group of truckers at a trailer-chapel in Raleigh, North Carolina; bidding them farewell, Maher signs off with “thank you for being Christ-like and not just Christian.” He knows that these fishies aren’t complete dunces, despite their beliefs—he admits to having to use a fake title (A Spiritual Journey) to gain access to them. Maher just wants to plant the seed of doubt: he acknowledges that being without faith is a luxury afforded the lucky, but wants to be perfectly clear that the comfort religion brings comes at a terrible price.—Stéphanie Verge