Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul (2022) Movie Review
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. originally premiered as a short film at the Atlanta Film Festival. The success of the short film, which also showed at several other film festivals, prompted a feature length film starring Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown. Not a bad cast for director (and Atlanta native) Adamma Ebo’s first feature length film.
In this mockumentary, the leader of a mega Southern Baptist church, Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown), is facing a scandal. His congregation has abandoned him and the church after claims that are undoubtedly true come to the surface. His wife, Trinitie (Regina Hall), is outwardly steadfast in her support of her husband and stays by his side as they attempt to weather the upheaval. Lee-Curtis hires a documentary crew to film them as they prepare to re-open the church on Easter Sunday.
Most of the movie involves the two talking directly to the camera or highly aware that it is there. They monitor what they say and sometimes (accidentally) get caught in an unflattering light. Part of what Ebo does extremely well is to poke fun at the megachurch culture. It’s hard to feel sympathetic for the Childs as we see their closet adorned with designer clothes and their decadent “throne” room (the chairs they sit on look like something out of Versailles). Somehow, the point of being a pastor has gotten lost and been replaced with chasing material success and appeasing a large ego.
Ebo also explores the relationship between Trinitie and Lee-Curtis which has many peaks and valleys. Hall in particular shines (as usual) as a woman determined to stand by her man despite his many indiscretions and flaws. Ebo does an excellent job of balancing the satire of the megachurch culture with showcasing the humanity of her subjects. It feels like the Childs are real people with a multitude of emotions. It would have been easy to make the Childs one dimensional but Hall and Brown do a great job of avoiding that pitfall.
Despite only being one hour and forty-six minutes, the movie drags a bit. The satire and mockumentary style gets a little stale and about halfway through, the movie has pretty much said everything that it needs to say. But it’s worth sticking around to see easily the best scene in the whole movie as Regina Hall raps “Knuck If You Buck” in the car. For a feature-length directorial debut, Ebo proves she’s someone to watch with a unique story idea and a compellingly done satire mockumentary. And it’s no surprise that Brown and Hall shine in these roles. We would watch them in anything.
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like satirical mockumentaries
2. You like poking fun at megachurch culture
3. You grew up in a Southern Baptist church
