Film Review: Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul

                   Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul

It’s not difficult to satirize the phony elements of black megachurches in the South (or anywhere else, for that matter), and first-time writer/director Adamma Ego has a wonderful time doing just that in her debut film “Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul.” 

Ego knows whereof she speaks, having grown up attending such churches in Atlanta, Georgia. The plot here revolves around a fallen minister named Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown) and his wife Trinitie (Regina Hall), who closed the church down after a fall from grace. The setup is reminiscent of white televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of an earlier day.

Here, we get buried in the absurd opulence of the Childs enterprise up front – the type that is evident from the flashy clothing, absurd hats and other accoutrements that scream money but don’t mention humility or religion.

We don’t know how much time Lee-Curtis spends studying the Gospel, but we know exactly how much time Trinitie spends in expensive shops, because we see it. In fact, she appears to be pretty much running the church from what she would probably call the background.

Additionally, the Childs enterprise has hired a cinematographer named Anita, who is tasked with filming everything we see.

Lee-Curtis has survived his sex scandal and is planning a comeback – a major reopening of the church on Easter Sunday – with considerable help from clotheshorse Trinitie.

The problem is that his former assistant and his wife (Conphidance and Nicole Beharie) have started their own church in the meantime, and plan an Easter opening as well.

How will they manage that problem? Requesting the others to change their date doesn’t work, so it appears they will go pulpit-to-pulpit on Easter Sunday. At this point, the film just gets crazier and crazier.

I recognize this type of church, because I grew up in a (white) evangelistic church myself, not in Atlanta but in San Diego. The “Honk” cast seems to be having a whale of a time – and the film has many funny moments – but its extremes wore me out after a while.