Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. Avoid this Satire. Save Yourself.

This review was originally published as part of Paste’s 2022 Sundance coverage.
In Jia Tolentino’s essay on her Houston experience with drugs and megachurch Christianity, she traverses the disturbing yet revealing valley between her religious experiences and the institution (the Repentagon, as she calls it) that was far too interested in everything but. The Righteous Gemstones, Danny McBride’s vulgar skewering of corporate religion, threads the broad theatrical links between televangelists, pro wrestlers and organized criminals. Attempting to take its place alongside these variously comical examinations of the health and wealth gospel, writer/director Adamma Ebo’s feature debut (expanded from her and producer sister Adanne’s short), Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. shines its glorious light down upon new corners of the phenomenon, but its formal and satirical strategies flicker in the face of a dark subject that deserves an equally ridiculous critique.
Inside of Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul., which looks at Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown) and first lady Trinitie Childs (Regina Hall), the regents of Southern Baptist megachurch Wander To Greater Paths, there is a warring pair of movies. First, there’s a faux documentary about the pair reopening their enterprise after a sex scandal shut them down. It’s bright and gaudy and with all the formal fixings you’d expect: Quick, handheld zooms on reactions and jokes based on multiple takes, talking-head framing and identifying captions.
Then, there’s the “real” movie. The aspect ratio extends from the mock doc’s boxy fullscreen to a dramatic wide, losing its glossy sheen and showing the Childs beyond their godly veneers. How the two formats interact starts as a point-counterpoint, showing how it really is after assessing the imperfect façade, then becomes seemingly random at times. It loses the plot just as quickly as the film itself, leaving its capable central duo preaching not even to the choir.