Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul. (2021 | USA | 102 minutes | Adamma Ebo)
Adamma Ebo’s film about a disgraced prosperity gospel preacher (Sterling K. Brown) and the church’s stand-by-your man “First Lady” (Regina Hall) on the precipice of an Easter resurrection, it plays like satire. It has the conceits of a mockumentary, with its oblivious subjects still under the impression that they can reshape their image through force of will and the power of positive projection. They constantly snap at the offscreen fly-on-the-wall film crew to cut uncharitable reactions, allow them privacy to deal with dirty laundry, and do alternate retakes to paint themselves in a more flattering light. Neither have come to terms with the thought that, save for five devout holdouts, their once booming Georgia congregation has evaporated for good, leaving them in possession of a sprawling empty campus and swimming in ostentatious wealth despite a revenue streaming having long since run dry.
The scandal precipitated a mass exodus from and abrupt shuttering of their “Wander to Greater Paths” megachurch goes unspoken in the opening act, which is a farcical skewering of pious excess and true belief. It sets the couple up as being firmly committed to their faith, especially when God sees fit to line their pockets and set them up on matching gold thrones. It even introduces a younger religious couple who emerge as purer rivals, making the leap from small-scale congregation to vicious mid-sized competitors. Eventually, the details leak in from the periphery of the faux-documentary styling, with archival footage and news reports hinting at the charges against Brown’s Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs whose love of live’s finer things — from alliterative Prada suits, sparkly designer shoes, and a fleet of sports cars — may have gotten him into very hot water. But it doesn’t take an explicit unveiling to sense the desperation in both their marriage and in their prospects for making a comeback.
That — and so much more — is communicated by the gradually fracturing facade of Trinitie Childs. To a degree, both Sterling K. Brown’s all-in performance as a pastor whose blinding belief in himself got him into trouble and Regina Hall’s portrayal of a wife whose conviction in the righteousness of her path is fraying forces the film out of its comedic mode (which, to its credit has some pretty funny moments). If anything the filmmakers ask perhaps too much of Hall — a gifted comedian and actor of incredible talent — and she more than delivers, with a commitment to the role that has her character shaking the titular sign on the side of the road and winding up in more makeup than Tammy Faye. The film doesn’t quite know what to do what that much talent and the film kind of gets away from them as the the comedy becomes too ridiculous to occupy the same place as the emotional explosions. Even if it doesn’t quite work, it’s impossible to look away.
Originally reviewed when Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. played as an official selection of the Premieres section at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. It is now in theatrical release.