Newcomer Adamma Ebo brings us her first feature-length film, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. Ebo made waves with her 2018 short, gaining the support of many Hollywood heavyweights, with Jordan Peele’s Monkey Paw Productions and Daniel Kaluuya signing on as producers. Will Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul translate well to the big screen?
What’s it about?
Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown) and First Lady Trinitie Childs (Regina Hall) lead the Wander to the Great Paths Mega Church in Atlanta. Lee-Curtis is marred by a sex scandal that caused almost all his 21,000 members to leave the church.
Trinitie has stuck beside Lee-Curtis through the drama and is helping him prepare for the church’s relaunch on Easter Sunday. Against Trinitie’s warning, Pastor Lee-Curtis invites a documentarian to record the “greatest comeback” of a megachurch pastor.
Through the documentary’s filming, we get a first-hand look at the predictable implosion of the couple and the church. The couple flounder through each idea, ignoring their apparent shortcomings. If only they would acknowledge their failures and how their values are compromised, there may be a path to redemption.
My Reaction
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. takes aggressive shots at megachurch culture and prosperity preaching. Lee-Curtis and Trinitie live in excess and flaunt their riches while justifying their status as a by-product of saving souls. They have no shame in flaunting their worldly possessions to their congregation as proof of blessings and favor from the lord.
The faulty logic of possessions and excess proves God’s approval is dangerous, often resulting in good people questioning their own spiritual character for their living conditions instead of the earthly conditions that breed inequality in the first place. You would think that the actions of Pastor and First Lady Childs are exaggerated by satire, but we see real-world examples of this every day.
The film also highlights the hypocrisy in certain parts of the culture, including homophobia. Although church views on homosexuality are evolving in many places, there are still plenty of fundamentalists out there that would belittle those within the LGBTQ community.
The Black church has a history of preaching against homosexuality, all while elevating and praising the musical and preaching talents of homosexuals in the church. So, members of the LGBTQ community who grow up under this twisted hypocrisy pay for it with their mental health. This hypocrisy is even more evident with some pastors who preach against LGBTQ relationships and are involved in secret affairs, like Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs.
The scandals present in Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. could be found among headlines today. Sure, not all Black churches behave in this way. Problematic church behavior and teaching are slowly dying. There are many Black churches focused on inclusion and social justice. Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul could have highlighted one of those churches as a counter to Pastor Lee Curtis and First Lady Childs. But absurdist satire is normally heavy-handed, and has to be, or else the audience may rationalize some other lesson than the obvious.
I don’t necessarily fault the movie for not introducing more balance regarding Black church culture. The problem is that Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. doesn’t have much meat to it. There is an idle rehashing of criticisms that don’t meaningfully build. With a feature-length run-time, the film could have undoubtedly introduced other elements of Black church culture and approached its criticisms in new ways.
The Child’s plan to relaunch their church by themselves is nonsensical. Certain pageantry is involved in the Black Church, especially megachurches like Wander to Greater Paths Baptist. The idea of having a relaunch on Easter Sunday without choir, praise team, and some other form of entertainment, such as an Easter play, is silly. Anyone who grew up in a Black church would expect those staples of the culture, and their exclusion makes the movie experience inauthentic.
Although Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown are excellent, their tackling of the same themes over and over again was boring.
Those additions would have also been spaces where the film could have provided additional examples of excess, homophobia, and judgmental gossip that gives the church a Black eye. Although Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown are excellent, their tackling of the same themes over and over again was boring. It also didn’t help that the script wasn’t funny. Sure, there is a chuckle here and there, but if you don’t have much going on in the film, you must deliver serious laughs.
Overall Rating
The 2018 short Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. was celebrated, but Ebo doesn’t expand the world or the story enough to justify a feature-length film. The plot is razor-thin, and there isn’t much for the actors to do. This film’s lack of humor was the nail in the coffin.
I wanted to love this movie, as it was one of my most anticipated for this fall. I did like the concept and explored themes, but an unfunny satire is oxymoronic. The criticism of the Black church is biting, and Hall and Brown excel, but the script just doesn’t work.
