Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic
Metascore
63 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 28 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 28
  3. Negative: 2 out of 28
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  1. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ernest Hardy
    80
    For all its shock-driven, laugh-out-loud moments, what makes Jesus so entertaining is that it puts you in the presence of a dementedly sharp mind -- one that understands that leftist subversion doesn't have to coddle or breast-feed the choir.
  2. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    80
    What makes Silverman a truly gifted comic is her timing and delivery.
  3. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    80
    It has its own explosively twisted originality. It's a geyser of exhilarating tastelessness.
  4. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    80
    She is so funny she should come with a seven-day waiting period.
  5. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    75
    Sarah Silverman is the most outrageously funny woman alive.
  6. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Allison Benedikt
    75
    Pairing monumental insensitivity with a bright-eyed delivery, Silverman is the current valedictorian of the nothing-is-sacred school of comedy, a modern-day Lenny Bruce spared her forefather's legal woes by time, breasts and porcelain skin.
  7. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    75
    Silverman is wickedly fast. Her timing kills.
  8. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    75
    Funny, original, occasionally poignant and almost all of it too dirty to repeat in a newspaper.
  9. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    75
    She has been compared to Lenny Bruce because of her incendiary topics, but Silverman's style, capitalizing on her innocent smile and good looks, is her own.
  10. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    75
    You see, in "Jesus Is Magic," Sarah Silverman plays "Sarah," a self-absorbed Jewish American Princess who also happens to be casually, cluelessly racist.
  11. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    75
    Silverman is funny and, more often than not, so is the film.
  12. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    75
    Sarah Silverman says things you wouldn't expect a nice, attractive Jewish girl to say. But that's only half her appeal.
  13. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    70
    The picture consists mostly of performance footage of Silverman, which, despite the fact that it's shot on grainy, anemic-looking digital video, is a pleasure to watch.
  14. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    70
    Though Silverman's edginess never quite crosses into social consequence, she's a brilliant craftswoman on stage, blessed with crack timing and an ability to massage each line to maximum effect.
  15. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    70
    Sarah Silverman's cartoon bunny rabbit smile could make her the poster child for orthodontia, but it's her timing that's the real thing of beauty.
  16. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    70
    It's the most exciting stand-up performance I've seen in years, yet in all honesty I can't say it made me laugh that much.
  17. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    67
    If you're going to say the unsayable and stay charming while doing so, it helps to look more like Sarah Silverman than Andrew Dice Clay.
  18. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    63
    How can such awful things come out of the mouth of such a pretty girl?
  19. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    60
    Once you become accustomed to her material and begin to anticipate it, some of the shine comes off the act.
  20. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    60
    Sarah Silverman has a bright, toothy smile; a sweet, innocent demeanor; and the most outrageously impious sense of humor of any comedian working today. And I don't just mean she's dirty. (She's filthy.) She makes fun of things other comedians wouldn't acknowledge, let alone mock.
  21. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    60
    Ms. Silverman is a skilled performer, and Jesus Is Magic is occasionally very funny, but don't be fooled: naughty as she may seem, she's playing it safe.
  22. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Michael Rechtshaffen
    50
    Definitely acquired-taste material and will perform best in the hipper, bigger rooms.
  23. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    50
    On stage, the attractive 34-year-old Silverman is very funny. She's too blue for Comedy Central, and too slow-paced for an HBO hour, but she'd come off better in either of those formats than she does in this mishmash.
  24. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    50
    Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic works best when this equal-opportunity offender is on the stage.
  25. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    50
    The transitions from performance to song and to reality are strained and awkward.
  26. Variety
    Reviewed by: Joe Leydon
    50
    Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic showcases the comic-actress in her familiar on-stage persona as a blithely self-involved Jewish American Princess whose penchant for perky vulgarity can be explosively funny or unnervingly shocking.
  27. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    38
    A movie that filled me with an urgent desire to see Sarah Silverman in a different movie. I liked everything about it except the writing, the direction, the editing and the lack of a parent or adult guardian.
  28. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    38
    The hot comic du jour wants to startle us but is merely startlingly dull.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.2 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 34 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 18
  3. Negative: 6 out of 18
  1. HalB.
    7
    Geez, why do viewers/critics take themselves (and this film) so seriously? It was a generally entertaining diversion, some laugh-out-loud moments, some light musical videos, lots of vulgarity and political incorrectness. Not everyone's cup of tea, but pretty damn funny nonetheless.. Jokes about 9/11 (actually, soy lattes), blacks, asians, hispanics, jews, caucasions, genitalia and "dooty" make up the bulk of her material. Sarah Silverman is undoubtedly talented and this movie showcases those talents. I'm not sure she's truly "edgy" or even trying to be that. She's just funny in a very offbeat and perverse way. And she happens to be very attractive & sexy. Not the girl to bring home to your mother, unless perhaps your mother is a jewish stripper who laughs at potty humor.… Full Review »
  2. JoshC.
    0
    What Bruce did with obscenity and Mr. Pryor - especially in his first concert film - did with race was to find the outer boundary of the audience's tolerance and push beyond it, confronting and confusing the satisfied self-image of the liberal, sophisticated public. This kind of transgression has long since become ritualized and normalized, and Ms. Silverman's act is the latest evidence that mocking political correctness has become a form of political correctness in its own right. Her version of insult humor is actually flattering, both to herself and to those who find it funny. She depends on the assumption that only someone secure in his or her own lack of racism would dare to make, or to laugh at, a racist joke, the telling of which thus becomes a way of making fun simultaneously of racism and of racial hyper-sensitivity. (Like many young, otherwise deracinated Jewish comedians, Ms. Silverman falls back on her ethnic identity as a way of claiming ready-made outsider status.) Everything she says is delivered through enough layers of self-consciousness - air quotes wrapped in air quotes - to make anyone who finds it offensive look like a sucker. She even makes fun of the idea that she might be thought of as an "edgy" comedian. And indeed she isn't. Ms. Silverman is a gutless comic who is just playing it safe.… Full Review »
  3. brette.
    10
    Wildly funny. sarah hits it out the park with the deliverance of her matieral.
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