“Going Clear” is perhaps the most informative documentary that you can watch about Scientology. The cult is adhered to by some of Hollywood’s most famous faces including Tom Cruise (“Top Gun”) and John Travolta (“Grease”) and this film helps to shine a light on its seedy practices and its highly questionable origins.

In “Going Clear”, we hear testimonies from many ex-Scientologists that reveal the abuses within the movement. We also learn the history of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the group and the author of “Dianetics”, Scientology’s equivalent of “The Bible”. We discover how this organisation has spread across the globe and has attracted many celebrities.

We hear from a range of people that have left Scientology. Some of them held senior positions in the hierarchy. Of course, we do not get any exclusive interviews with Cruise or Travolta or the group’s current leader, David Miscavige. However, we do get to see some archive footage. The archive footage of Cruise and L. Ron Hubbard is both amusing and pretty scary. The Cruise footage contains excerpts from the infamous interview about his faith. We find that Hubbard was a science-fiction writer before founding a religion and there are some striking similarities between his works of fiction and his theological texts.

“Going Clear” has come under intense fire from Scientology, who have characterised it as biased and claim the participants are discredited. You can make the decision for yourself. I think watching this movie will give you a very good insight into the alleged abuses of Scientology. I recommend “Going Clear” for anybody that has ever found the Scientologists a curious bunch because this documentary is likely to answer a lot of questions. If you do not have the few hours needed to check this out, may I recommend the “South Park” episode instead.