Alex Gibney directs Tom Cruise, John Travolta and L. Ron Hubbard in this scathing look at the bonkers 20th century invented religion that has been taken up by many a Hollywood power player.

This is not, by any journalistic definition, a balanced look at the prosperous cult. It feels almost too attacking to really be absorbed by an open minded viewer as bare faced facts. At best the whole thing has a gossipy fascination, the schadenfreude of watching a string of gullible whiteys be manipulated by new age business racketeers. The take home is they moved away from cod psychology and enforced slavery to religious protection from taxes and real estate. Shady cabal acts shady, makes money, exerts influence. You could say that of any organised belief system, even hardline atheism.

5