Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul review

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul is a damnable effort with a disingenuous marketing campaign selling this slog like a fun comedy.

Filmmaking sibling duo Adamma and Adanne Ebo revisit their 2018 short for this project but aren’t so much interested in telling a nuanced story. Instead, the movie comes off more like filmmakers drumming the same tired beat when it relates to church on the big screen.

After a big scandal that sent his congregation fleeing, Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown, This is Us) is ready for his comeback. To document this big revival, Lee-Curtis has hired a documentary crew to record the month leading up to the church’s reopening.

Lee-Curtis’ dutiful wife, Trinite (Regina Hall, Me Time) isn’t so sure about having a film crew follow their every step. As with most things, Trinitie acquiesces to Lee-Curtis’ wishes.

 

That’s not hard to imagine as Lee-Curtis is very charismatic and confident. Though he seems highly delusional that he can brush off his transgressions so easily.

The Ebos never outright comes out and details the scandal. Through various conversations and some subtle/not-so subtle actions, Lee-Curtis was at least grooming a bunch of young boys or having sexual relations with them — because you know, that’s the tired cliche with church leaders.

As you’d imagine this doesn’t lend itself to much comedy. Sexual harassment/abuse isn’t exactly a gold mine for jokes. All it takes in this case is one darker subplot to turn up to ruin a potentially interesting idea. Of course, that would require more tact than Honk for Jesus is capable of in any scenario.

Trinitie proves to be a more sympathetic character. She clearly seems frustrated and annoyed with Lee-Curtis’ antics yet goes along for the grand prize for her — being back on the stage front and center as the church’s First Lady. Still, much like Lee-Curtis there’s not enough insight to what’s really driving the characters.

This is where Honk for Jesus runs into its biggest issue. Is it a film for “church folks” likely to get frustrated with the caricature portrayal of a pastor and his First Lady or audiences that think Christians are nothing but hypocrites? That would be akin to…preaching to the choir.

It’s too on the nose and cartoonish to be a searing satire and too simplistic to offer a thoughtful exploration of the people behind the scenes at a megachurch. Lee-Childs dropping f- and s-bombs isn’t nearly as revelatory as the Ebos seem to think. Ooohhh, the pastor curses! How scandalous!

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The script just invites too many questions that Ebo doesn’t have any intentions of answering like how Lee-Curtis and Trinitie were paying their bills, how the church looked so pristine and what hardship they faced beyond not having a packed service.

There’s also an odd subplot involving former parishioners, Shakura (Nicole Beharie, Breaking) and Keon Sumpter (Conphidance), who have opened a neighboring church that has quickly started filling its pews with the Childs’ disgruntled parishioners.

The Ebos aren’t committed to any direction with the Sumpters despite some teases that they are not as wholesome and innocent as they appear.

Easily the film’s biggest sin is completely squandering Brown and Hall’s performances. Brown is no stranger to reaching down deep for heavy emotional performances as seen in basically every episode of This Is Us.

Hall’s resume is more diverse as she easily shifts from comedy to drama, yet this might be her most nuanced performance of her career. It’s the kind of performance for Hall that would warrant award consideration if it were attached to a better movie.

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul wants to be this explosive send up of the megachurch inner workings but the Ebos’ efforts to make a drama out of a comedic setup isn’t worthy of redemption.

Rating: 4 out of 10

Photo Credit: Focus Features