Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul

If there's an MVP within Honk for Jesus.  Save Your Soul, it is definitely Regina Hall, who lifts up nearly every scene of this largely hit and miss satire on religion.  She plays the disgraced wife of an equally disgraced pastor (Sterling K. Brown, also very good), and commands the screen whenever she's on, especially during the film's final act.

One of the last shots of the film is her simply staring directly at the camera and the audience, and it so perfectly capsulizes everything that her character must be feeling, and holds immense power.  It makes me wish that the movie had focused more on her struggle, rather than saving most of her best moments for the final half.  In adapting her short film for feature length, first-time writer-director Adamma Ebo fires a bit too broadly and plays it a bit safe when she tries to go after corruption in the world of megachurches and those who preach God and love, but have more than a few secrets that threaten their life of privilege.  It's a ripe subject for satire, which the film finds little new to say about.  What makes the movie worth seeing are the scenes later on that explore Hall's character, and her conflicted feelings about her husband, herself, and almost everything in her life.

The film is mostly shot as a "mockumentary" in the style of Christopher Guest (Best in Show).  I say mostly, as there are some bizarre moments where obviously there is no camera crew, like when the main characters are driving and singing along to rap music, or an extended sex scene late at night, which kill the "camera crew is always present" feel that the movie is obviously going for.  Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Brown) and his wife Trinitie (Hall) have for years run the successful Southern Baptist megachurch, Wander the Greater Path.  People once flocked in the tens of thousands to listen to Lee-Curtis preach his sermons, but a scandal involving some young boys came to light, attendance dried up, and Trinitie was forced to go into defense mode, standing by her husband, despite the allegations, which got covered up in payments.

A year later, the Childs are hoping to reopen their church on Easter Sunday, but they now find themselves in direct competition with a new megachurch run by a young couple (Nicole Beharie and Conphidance) that has stolen most of their followers who used to flock to them every week.  The rival pastor and his wife is an idea that the film doesn't do nearly enough with, and could have added a unique angle.  Instead, the film follows an off camera film crew that follow Pastor Lee-Curtis and Trinitie as they set up to hold onto the fame and the lifestyle of material excess that they have become accustomed to.  These are not exactly fresh ideas for satire, but ones that could still work, but in her film debut, Ebo doesn't cut deep enough or hit hard enough with the topics she's going after.

Again, it is in the last half when Honk for Jesus.  Save Your Soul truly begins to find its footing, and it all boils down to Trinitie questioning everything.  She spends a majority of these moments dressed in mime makeup (and yes, there's a reason), and it's during these scenes that she has an emotional breakdown that is beautifully acted by Hall.  It's been leading up to this, as she's been clutching onto the life that her husband and her once enjoyed, and she's been doing her best to ignore reality, but standing there in that make up, trying to promote her church and trying to block out what everyone is saying about them, she just finds herself in a moment where she can no longer be the "stand by your man" image that her husband needs her to be.

Hall's performance and the handling of these dramatic moments work better than when the movie is trying to be a broad satire.  Another great moment is when she comes upon her husband chatting up one of the young men working on the film crew shooting the documentary about them.  It's these scenes that gave me a sense of what the film was going for.  The satire never quite hits, but the quiet and more honest moments did.  And it all closes on that long look at the camera that Hall gives that really grabbed me.  The lack of consistency throughout gave me the impression that maybe this idea should have stayed as the short where it originated, rather than a full-on feature film.

This is a movie that works from time to time, but the performances are what hold your attention.  I admire the entire cast for their efforts, and I hope for Ebo's next movie, she finds a subject that hasn't been mined so much, and finds a lot more to say.

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