Until recently, Trinitie and Lee-Curtis Child led one of the largest Baptist congregations in the southern United States. It was before the scandal. Indeed, Lee-Curtis likes handsome young men, whom he is used to showering with expensive gifts: this clashes with the model and traditional marital image, carefully constructed by Trinitie and him. Never mind, the power couple Fallen is about to make a comeback. And a film crew was hired to document it.
Based on his short film, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul is the feature debut of director Adamma Ebo, who is also writing the screenplay. The film stars Regina Hall (Girls Trip, Me Time) and Sterling K. Brown (the series This Is Us), and is additionally co-produced by popular filmmaker Jordan Peele, author of get-out and of Boop (well no).
Using the mockumentary formula, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul has fun blurring the line between reality and fiction to better fire red bullets at its target, here, the mega-churches and their not always very holy patrons. Bizarrely, however, the film breaks with this narrative device here and there, while we witness scenes where the said team is not present.
Without unfortunately displaying their brilliance, their rigor or provoking a comparable level of hilarity, the film is obviously inspired by Christopher Guest parodies such as The Best in Showon dog shows, A Mighty Wind (The big reunions), on the parallel universe of folk music, or even For Your Considerationon the frenzy of the race for the Oscar for interpretation.
For its part, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul attacks an easy target: the supporters of these mega-churches, with their flashy paraphernalia, their kitsch palaces, their manifest greed and their obvious hypocrisy for everyone but themselves, are indeed from the outset of itinerant caricatures.
Random progress
However, precisely, the film is limited to remaining on the surface, lingering more willingly on the vulgarity of the ostentatious luxury in which the Child spouses still live than on exploring their deep motivations. The only two scenes where the varnish cracks and the film cares about what’s underneath come when Trinitie refuses to suppress her frustration any further: when she catches Lee-Curtis seducing yet another young man, and when the documentarian tries to make him believe that she is not trying to ridicule the couple with her film (in the film).
These passages are electrifying, but not thanks to the writing or the direction, no. It’s Regina Hall, every time, who transcends the material and delivers a performance that’s extremely felt. During these two scenes, we briefly glimpse the best film that Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul could have been ; a film endowed with psychological ambitions, criticisms…
Unfortunately, it soon becomes clear that much like Lee-Curtis, who churns out last-minute ideas but proves unable to come up with a cohesive plan, the film doesn’t know where to go. Too often, one has the impression of a random collage — and unfolding —. Including at the end, which seems very abrupt, but which paradoxically occurs when we have been wondering for a while when the film is going to end. In short, not enough to put a cinephile congregation in jubilation.