Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. opens like a Christopher Guest take on megachurch culture, but writer-director Adamma Ebo has more on her mind than simple satire. Honk for Jesus is shot partially in a mockumentary style (which evokes Guest movies like Waiting for Guffman and TV shows like The Office and Abbott Elementary) and partially in a more traditional widescreen narrative style, sometimes switching between the two aspect ratios within the same scene. It's similarly bifurcated in tone, mixing comical absurdity with serious — if also often absurd — drama. Those transitions between modes are sometimes jarring, but they add up to a deeper portrayal of a dysfunctional marriage and a dysfunctional church.
The two go hand-in-hand, since Atlanta's Wander to Greater Paths Baptist Church is entirely run by Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown) and his wife, Trinitie (Regina Hall), who calls herself the "first lady." They preach a familiar-sounding prosperity gospel, which has brought them extensive wealth and fame, at least until a sexual abuse scandal that drove away nearly their entire congregation. Now that Lee-Curtis has reached a settlement with his accusers, the couple is getting ready to reopen the church, and they've invited a film crew to document the process.
Ebo initially plays the Childs' hubris for laughs, as they show off their tacky wardrobes and home décor and try to project an image of devout spirituality in the midst of a very secular crisis. It's funny to watch Lee-Curtis get flustered when he steps in gum in his expensive Italian leather shoes, but there's also an undercurrent of rage and despair even in these small comedic moments. The allegations against Lee-Curtis are not amusing, but the couple's response to them often is, and the mockumentary footage shows them stumbling over their efforts to rehabilitate their image.
The filmmakers within the film capture plenty of unguarded moments between the couple, but Ebo also presents scenes that aren't part of the documentary, intimate moments between Lee-Curtis and Trinitie as they alternately confront and avoid the fracture in their marriage that the scandal has caused. Trinitie is determined to stand by her man, even if no one else will stand by him, but Hall registers every flicker of doubt and resentment that Trinitie feels.
Both Hall and Brown give fantastic performances that carry the movie past its bumpy shifts in tone, and Hall in particular is remarkably adept at integrating the comedy and the drama. When Trinitie delivers a climactic speech in full "praise mime" makeup, it's both darkly hilarious and emotionally devastating. Lee-Curtis is the one who gets the headlines, but Trinitie suffers all of the consequences without the same opportunity for redemption.
Ebo never judges Trinitie for her choices, and Hall makes even her most misguided actions convincing. Elements of the Childs' story parallel the real-life saga of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, and Hall brings the same combination of sympathy and cynicism that Jessica Chastain demonstrated in the Oscar-winning title role of The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
The movie belongs to Hall and Brown, but Nicole Beharie and Conphidance make strong impressions as the Childs' rivals, married co-pastors who are also former Wander to Greater Paths congregants. They may not have a scandal to contend with, but they're just as vain and venal as the Childs, as they prepare for a grand opening of their new location on the same day that the Childs are planning their own comeback. Instead of building to a showdown, Honk for Jesus opts for a quieter but more brutal finale, committing to its morbid humor until the bitter, inescapable end. ♦
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.
