Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

Grade: B-

I try to respect punctuation and spelling in movie titles, no matter how unusual. Ford v Ferrari. Who could forget mother! with its lowercase beginning letter and exclamation point? Spider-Man and Butt-Head have hyphens. BlacKkKlansman is still in my phone’s auto-complete from when I frequently typed it in 2019. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood has the ellipses. Now we have Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. There are periods at the end of each phrase, which makes it awkward if I’m not ending a sentence with it, but on I forge.

I wasn’t aware that a pastor’s wife is sometimes called a “first lady.” Hearing that in the trailer for Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. made me think it was about a president who also has a church, or something. It was impossible for me to watch it and not think of The Eyes of Tammy Faye. This covers similar territory, with a charming charismatic pastor, his first lady, and their wildly successful mega-church suddenly getting upended by allegations of sexual misconduct.

Sterling K. Brown (Black Panther, This is Us) and Regina Hall are Lee-Curtis and Trinitie Childs. The film opens shortly after the allegations have come out. It is shot in documentary style about 60% of the time. They have hired a camera crew to film everything leading up to the grand re-opening of their church (Wander to Greater Paths). They have chosen Easter Sunday for their great resurrection. There is an early scene in the bedroom where Lee-Curtis needs something to be done a certain way. Also, there is footage of a sermon about a controversial topic, where he seems to protest too much. It doesn’t exactly take Sherlock Holmes to figure out what those allegations were about.

Two former parishioners of Wander to Greater Paths have spun off and created Heaven’s House. The opening of their second location is also happening on Easter Sunday. My initial thoughts were: why does this have to be a competition? The playground is big enough for everybody, right? Isn’t it just a wonderful thing that people are going to worship, no matter where they go? Lee-Curtis and Trinitie don’t see it that way, and most of Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. is them giving the crew a tour of their ridiculous house, absolutely cavernous church, and almost literally bending over backwards to keep people coming to their place. Their insecurity is transparent.

Sterling K. Brown relishes his role as the ebullient, silly pastor. He attacks it with fervor, as if he’ll never again get the opportunity to be this over-the-top. Regina Hall, who I’ve seen improve every project she’s a part of, works well with him as his long-suffering first lady. There is an untold amount of romantic and sexual frustration to unpack. The Heaven’s House couple is played by Conphidance and Nicole Beharie. The latter was recently so great in the hostage thriller Breaking, and is equally effective and different here. The script is sharp, and at its most fun when it leans into what I hear is classic Southern Baptist passive-aggression. I loved the scene in the mall, with all the phony laughter and bless-your-hearts.

I have to ding the movie because of the jarringly abrupt ending. My benefit of the doubt thinks that the filmmakers didn’t want to spoon-feed us a long tidied-up epilogue after the climax, and just end it while things are still ramping up. I can respect that, but if that was the intent, it doesn’t work here. It just feels like the engine is suddenly cut off. But all that being said, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. is like a car accident you can’t stop looking at. It’s sad and fascinating to watch these tortured, desperate characters.

Grade: B-