Movie Sundance Starring Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown – The Hollywood Reporter

Lee-Curtis Childs and “First Lady” Trinitie Childs, city leaders with matching titles and penchant for luxury goods, are delusional in different and different degrees. together. As Horn for Jesus. Save your soul To begin with, they’re trying to rebuild their congregation after a sexual misconduct scandal left the rows of seats empty. With a bossy personality off the charts, he deflects blame, even though he holds the responsibility. The tight wound of her loyalty to her man was being untied, stitched up stitch by stitch. They are played by Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall, skilled technicians of wry smile and performance laugh. Their portraits portray caricature as they navigate the cracks in their expanding hairline between Childses’ stage of self-glorification and their self-perception. If only the film around them was so refined.

Expanding on a 2018 short of the same name, brother filmmakers known as the Ebo twins – writer-director-producer Adamma Ebo and producer Adanne Ebo – use a combination of fantasy story and traditional story to shed light on the prosperity gospel, à la the Bakkers, but from an explicitly black Southern perspective. There are suggestions that the leader must not only skew the idea of ​​a personality cult money machine, but also grapple with questions of religion as an important connective tissue of the community, though those questions are only half-formed. As the formidable central duo “favors God” with their mansions and couture, the over-length film often feels like it’s all dressed with nowhere to go, turning into a collection repetition of horror bits. A handful of clearly written moments stand out, hinting at the irony that might have once been.

Brown’s ego officer asked filmmaker Anita (Andrea Laing), who could not be seen but heard from a brief clip near the end of the film, to “record the final return”: He and Trinitie plan an Easter Sunday reboot of their Wander to Greater Paths Baptist Church film. All but 5 of the 25,000 congregations have fled, a godsend for another Baptist church in Atlanta, the House of Heaven, from which many of them have defected. Thanks to outflows from the massive herd, married ministers Shakura and Keon Sumpter (Nicole Beharie and Conphidance) are gearing up to open their new, larger church, aka the House of Heaven 2.0. Their big event is also scheduled for Easter.

The issue of reopening duels serves as a plot engine, but the film’s main trajectory is the awakening of Trinitie, brilliantly played by Hall but all informed by the director. clearly. While her spouse expected the doctor to serve the important project of restoring her reputation, the First Lady’s doubts about this were apparent from the start, diluting intended for later parts of the feature. Lee-Curtis’ hypocrisy is no surprise either, though a glimpse of the couple’s sex life offers more insight than the clip of him preaching against homosexuality or a phone conversation with an attorney negotiating a settlement with young men who accuse the pastor. .

Writer-director Ebo is very interested in character types, but doesn’t always know what to do with them. An early scene involved the so-called Devout Five, whose worshipers chose not to wander off the Wander to Greater Path (they were played by Robert Yatta, Greta Marable Glenn, Crystal Alicia Garrett, Selah Kimbro Jones, and Perris Drew). role), takes place out of nowhere. The same can be said of some of the film’s interactions, including Trinitie’s conversation with her mother (Avis-Marie Barnes), however well acted. Whistle for Jesus could use more conflicting, complex, and character-enhancing exchanges than hitting a rut.

The film’s only real tension comes when a cell phone-recorded observer stands silent, chewing gum disdainfully by the side of the road where the kids are making a last-ditch effort to drum up support. aid. Otherwise, the sequences end up feeling more ridiculous and dull than efficient. Elsewhere, the film attracts the most attention when the script allows the strange to have a basis to infiltrate. The way the central duo approach mouse and robot analogies to make their point have an incredible edge, and Brown takes a high turn at the eureka moment when the preacher declares that “Jesus is all about the shock factor.” Trinitie’s encounters with former member Denetta (a memorable Olivia D. Dawson) are rife with passive-aggressive chatter, finding only the right degree of excess.

Hall and Brown are a great hit to watch, their physicality is at times close to debauchery. For the most part, she’s quiet and tight-lipped. And he’s wildly wordless when it comes to showing Lee-Curtis’ impatience with the whole damn world and he believes it should be left to him to handle, whether he’s flirting with a new acquaintance. or trying to take down a distressed accuser (Austin Crute). A car scene where the pair sing along – with fervor, if not joy – to some Atlanta homegrown hip-hop (“Crime Mob’s Knuck If You Buck”) feels like The movie’s most revealing moment.

Ebo makes good use of fake news clips on television and especially a Greek chorus in the form of fictional people calling up a Black talk radio show. These voices make up the supermarket scandal, one of their questions is why Trinitie is staying with her disgraced husband. Along with the script, Hall’s performance revolves around a serious commitment to the spiritual and social relevance of the church (and of church hats, just one aspect of the flamboyant costume design). by Lorraine Coppin) and a bit of Lady Macbeth-style ambition. “Bring me back to that stage,” she hissed in a moment of dismay, making it clear that this was as important as her husband’s return to the podium.

In the end, however, Trinitie’s fate may be less important than the Sumpters’ fate. Highlighting the embodied business side of for-profit religion, Ebo may not maintain her satirical side, but she does leave us to reflect on the sincerity of the young couple, one The question has broader implications. Shakura and Keon are mirror images of Childses – does that mean they can’t avoid walking the same path?