TMS Movie Review: Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul
(Steve Swisher / Pinky Promise)
Adamma Ebo’s Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul has the very difficult task of taking the piss out of ridiculous comedy characters while also handling a serious, real-life topic. Take Regina Hall, a longterm, steady working comedienne, opposite Sterling K. Brown, a successful dramatic character actor, as the leads of this satire on megachurch culture. Brown has to channel his comedic timing a bit more than usual, while Hall has to tone hers down at times for more straight, dramatic moments. Impressively, the casting completely works. Honk for Jesus, Ebo’s first full length feature and a longer version of her short film of the name from 2018, makes for one of the more memorable movies of 2022.
In modern day Atlanta, GA, Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Brown) and his wife and biggest supporter, Trinitie (Hall) are planning to re-open his Baptist church after its demise following very public allegations of sexual misconduct by a few college students. To help promote the comeback and reel in Lee-Curtis’ followers who have drifted elsewhere, the couple hire a documentary crew to film the progress of their big day near Easter Sunday. At the same time, younger, attractive Christian couple Keon (Uchenna Echeazu) and Shakura Sumpter (Nicole Beharie) are turning out to be competition as their own local church becomes more popular.
(Pinky Promise / Focus Features)
Honk for Jesus is pretty much what I expected from Michael Showalter’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021). While the biopic from last year did surprisingly well on the awards circuit, I felt that it played the controversies and showmanship of the real Televangelist subjects a little too safe. It might be that all the characters in Honk for Jesus are fictional, so the creators felt they could go in as much as they wanted; so the writing, direction, actors and characters don’t hold back for themes of hypocrisy, harassment and self-importance about preachers and servers of God who prioritize publicity and televised theatrics in spreading the word. A great moment in the film is near the end, when a young man says he didn’t start liking church until Lee-Curtis started adding elaborate effects during his services; but then a few scenes later, another young man calls the pastor out for using ‘green screen crap’ in church. I also appreciate that Ebo doesn’t beat around the bush on whether Lee-Curtis is guilty or not with vagueness like Tammy Faye did with Jim Bakker’s accusations, and we know up front on the male lead’s true colors in Honk for Jesus.
The comedy elements do wear a bit thin in the third act, and the humor mixed with social commentary might not work for some. But a great, career changing performance by Hall that could make her jump into dramas regularly if she wants to; and a bizarrely hilarious scene where Lee-Curtisa and Trinitie rap along to Crime Mob’s ‘Knuck if You Buck,’ Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul is a refreshing way to start September.