"Honk For Jesus" Is More Serious Than Slapstick
Starring Regina Hall, Sterling K. Brown
Rated R
Comedy
Run time: 1 hr, 42 min
Directed and written by Adamma Ebo
In theaters and on Peacock September 2, 2022
The trailer is misleading - let’s go ahead and put that out there. While the vibe is very much, “LOL have you seen mega church preachers??” in the trailer, the movie goes much further and darker than may be evident after the preview. While it may seem like a spoiler to some, I want to note the basis of the gingerly mentioned scandal is related both to being gay and having a grooming relationship or one involving dubious consent. It’s simultaneously a focus and brushed over somehow, and it tries to shove that issue onto the back burner, much like its central couple does. It’s all about rehabilitation, and neither part of the pair has room for talk about what has been, especially once the settlement has been taken care of.
Sterling K. Brown plays Lee-Curtis Childs, a disgraced mega-church pastor attempting to rise from the ashes of a salacious and upsetting scandal. By his side is Trinitie (Regina Hall), his wife who would love nothing more than to get past all of this, especially if it is able to be achieved without acknowledging what actually occurred and what her husband is guilty of. They’ve hired a documentary crew to capture this hopefully meteoric rise back to the top of the church game, even when they do discover that they have rivals attempting to open up a new location on the same day. What they expect to be a glowing visual of what they are doing to come back bigger and better than ever turns into an exposé of just how fractured the couple’s relationship - and their relationship with former parishioners- truly is. It isn’t going to be easy, but at least they’ll always have this to commemorate it.
I originally was sold on this movie solely due to Sterling K. Brown. He was one of my favorite things about This Is Us (and he and Milo Ventimiglia are the reasons I stuck around as long as I did), so the opportunity to see him in another property was extremely intriguing. While I have zero complaints about his performance and role, the true star is Regina Hall as his devoted wife. In every micro-expression and moment of uncertainty, she sells the idea of a woman split in two. As a devout, religious wife, she is determined not to leave Lee-Curtis’ side (which is strengthened even more by her mother’s argument of what Christianity looks like within a relationship), even when it is absolutely clearly ruining her life. She is constantly torn in two, wanting nothing more than to put on a brave face for the masses, but struggling hard to ignore how it all affects her.
There are definitely laugh-out-loud moments in this movie, and they aren’t difficult to find. However, there is an obviously darker undertone when the real information around the scandals sneak out. It is not always for the faint-hearted, especially if you have some trauma in that same field. As someone who has struggled with religious trauma, I found this film cathartic and bringing a lot to light in regards to some more corrupt church communities. However, I’d almost say that The Eyes of Tammy Faye does better addressing the greed aspect of quite a few religious leaders and has a little less of the darkness overall. Either way, especially with this streaming on Peacock, it’s worth 110 minutes of your life, even if it is to just give Brown a standing ovation for how insanely ripped he is (which may or may not be something utterly ridiculous for a pastor, but hey, it works).