We Fall Down: Regina Hall Shines In "Honk For Jesus, Save Your Soul"

Honk For Jesus, Save Your Soul

directed by Adamma Ebo
starring Regina Hall, Sterling K. Brown

Thanks to the auspices of the African American Film Critics Association, which I rejoined recently, I was able to view the Syndance Festival hit Honk For Jesus, Save Your Soul. Alternately a side-splitting mockumentary, a workplace comedy, an unsparing relationship drama, a scathing critique of organized religion, and a probing examination of our current culture, Honk For Jesus -- which premiered January 23 at the Sundance Film Festival --is a rollercoaster ride that starts with laughter and ends in tears. 

Written and directed by Atlanta newcomer Adamma Ebo and produced by her twin sister Adanne Ebo, Honk For Jesus stars the incredibly committed Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) and the incomparably talented Regina Hall, who both also support the film as producers. Their performances hold the film together so tightly that you get swept up into the story. 

And the story is not unfamiliar, thanks to headlines of fallen or compromised church leaders over the last decade. Whether Honk For Jesus evokes laughter, ridicule, compassion, or ire is an open question as the film winds to its conclusion. 

Charismatic pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Brown) and his devoted wife, First Lady Trinitie Childs (Hall) are attempting to rebound from an unnamed scandal that has left their Georgia Southern Baptist megachurch mostly empty of congregants. Desperate but determined to reclaim their pre-scandal glory, the couple engages a mostly unseen documentary film crew to follow them as they attempt to regain their standing in the church community, restore their reputations, and fill their pews once more. Of course, the cameras capture more than the Childs bargained for, not only recording their fake-pious assurances that God will see them through their current woes, but their unbridled materialism, their intense competition with a local couple who pastor a rival church, their marital squabbles, their hypocrisy, and their delusional belief that the scandal will melt away once they throw enough money at the problem and put on a happy face. Some of the moments with the Childs are not seen through the documentarists' lens, as in an intimate scene when the couple has sex and it is obvious that Pastor Childs has certain ... preferences. 

There are some laughs, as when the couple cluelessly gives a tour of the church's expansive wardrobe area, where Lee-Curtis and Trinitie revel in the sheer number of pricey designer outfits available for Sunday wear; an erstwhile service where Pastor Lee-Curtis decides to strip down in front of a handful of remaining parishioners to plunge into the baptism pool in a misguided attempt to cleanse himself of his transgressions, only to have a tiff with Trinitie over the proper way to say "Amen"; and when Trinitie goes to the mall to shop for an expensive Church Lady Hat only to be confronted by a former parishioner in a fraught and fake exchange about the rival church's plans. 

Though the nature of the scandal the couple faces is never spelled out in so many words, we get numerous clues about sexual misconduct with male minors from Pastor Lee-Curtis's encounters: on the phone with his lawyer, with a young cameraman from the documentary crew, and in an ugly exchange with a young man who was a former parishioner. For his part, a narcissistic Lee-Curtis is mostly unwilling to acknowledge his particular demons, or to truly apologize to his parishioners or indeed his wife for his behavior. As the film continues, we see that Trinitie's determined smiles, spousal pep talks, assurances to the camera that their devoted ministry will go on, and willingness to publicly humiliate herself to regain their status are literally a (praise mime dancing) mask for all the humiliations she faces as the wife of a compromised man of God. Ultimately, the mask slips as the couple's plans for a grand reopening of their church on Easter Sunday seem more and more compromised,

In the end, after consulting her faithful mother, Trinitie is resolute in her commitment to the man she married and to his vision of the Wander to Greater Paths Church (a name that itself begs for a stream of jokes). As the film draws to a close, we are left to wonder about just how much Trinitie's faith in both her God and her husband can endure.

While there have been numerous television shows and series that address the business of religion and the hypocrisy of church leaders, I expect Honk For Jesus to strike a nerve in the community. I was impressed by the performances of these two actors, but most especially by Hall, who elicits sympathy as a woman who sees through the B.S. but remains committed. 

You can watch my interaction with Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown at the AAFCA Roundtable about this film here: