‘Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul.’ Review: Regina Hall Shines In A Sly, Subversive Black Megachurch Comedy [Sundance]

Jennifer Lopez knows a thing or three about media harassment and being in the public eye 24/7, but that only makes the far-fetched romantic comedy Marry Me seem even less tolerable or redeemable than it might have looked on paper. In its opening minutes, this slickly made, music-drenched concoction serves up a premise so massively implausible — that one of the hottest female singers on the planet would replace her cheating macho fiancé in front of a live TV audience with an ineffectual single dad math teacher in his 50s — that it can never recover. It is, in two words, perfectly preposterous.

Neil Young has taken another swipe at Spotify after pulling his music from the platform to take a stand against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation being spread by podcaster Joe Rogan.

Spotify over their alleged support of vaccine misinformation, Neil Young has encouraged workers at Spotify – as well as fellow musicians – to step away from the streaming giant.“In our communication age, misinformation is the problem,” he wrote in a statement to his website yesterday (February 7). “Ditch the misinformers. Find a good clean place to support with your monthly checks.

Focus Features, Peacock and Jordan Peele’s MonkeyPaw Productions have acquired worldwide rights to the megachurch satire starring Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall.

previously snagged the rights to the next film by Nikyata Jusu, the director of “Nanny” whose film won the Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance. “Honk for Jesus” is a comedy and satire filmed partially as a faux-documentary, and it follows Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Brown) and his wife, First Lady Trinitie Childs (Hall), as the heads of a Southern Baptist mega church as they try and bounce back from a scandal that’s forced them to shut their doors and led their congregation to leave in a mass exodus. The film picks up in the aftermath as the Childs, still insanely wealthy, try and host an Easter service and drum up attention for the community with a feeble attempt telling passers by on the highway to “Honk for Jesus.” The movie satirizes the culture of for-profit religion and the corruption, back biting and ego that goes on behind the scenes.

In his latest salvo against Spotify, rocker Neil Young is urging musicians, creators and even employees to abandon the streaming service, telling Spotify workers to “get out of that place before it eats up your soul.”

Focus Features, Peacock, and Monkeypaw Productions have acquired global rights to Sundance Film Festival premiere Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul which will receive a theatrical day-and-date release in theaters and on Peacock later this year.

Zack Sharf Neil Young has urged Spotify employees to quit the company in the wake of the fallout involving Joe Rogan, which has spiraled from the podcaster’s use of his platform to air Covid-19 misinformation to his earlier, frequent use of a racial slur on his show. Young is now targeting Spotify CEO Daniel Ek as the company’s chief problem.“To the musicians and creators in this world, I say this: You must be able to find a better place than Spotify to be the home of your art,” Young wrote in a post on his Neil Young Archives site.

Daniel Ek said exclusive deals like one with Joe Rogan are critical to the company’s business, that he sometimes finds the podcast offensive, but that he doesn’t consider Spotify a “publisher” in terms of bearing responsibility for content it carries.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSpotify’s staff was up in arms about the company and co-founder/CEO Daniel Ek’s defense of Joe Rogan in a town hall meeting Wednesday that followed its middling quarterly report and subsequent stock drop, according to a report in the Verge that cites a leaked audio recording of the meeting.In Ek’s 15-minute speech, he positioned the company as both a platform and publisher, saying that “There are many things that Joe Rogan says that I strongly disagree with and find very offensive,” he said, but defended the company’s relationship with the controversial podcaster by stating, “If we want even a shot at achieving our bold ambitions, it will mean having content on Spotify that many of us may not be proud to be associated with. Not anything goes, but there will be opinions, ideas, and beliefs that we disagree with strongly and even makes us angry or sad.” Reps for Spotify did not immediately respond to Variety‘s requests for comment.

Regina Hall As we enter Black History Month, I reflect on the varied meanings it has held for me throughout the many stages of my life. When I was young, it felt like an obligatory time of homework and essays about Black historical figures. As I matured, it began to hold a great sense of pride for what my ancestors not only endured but survived.

In the same way that the good punk bands generally don’t do reunion tours, something felt off about the “Jackass” gang getting back together as many are hitting the big 5-0. When piss and vinegar are the two active ingredients in your formula to success, aging can be a real motherfucker; no one wants to watch the anarchic hellraisers they remember soften into slower, tamer versions of themselves.

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“Master.” When Pond brought up a scene from “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul” that takes place in a pool involving Hall’s toes, ripples of laughter erupted.

“We grew up in Atlanta and in the church. Like in the height of Southern Baptist megachurches.

Sundance studio, along with stars Regina Hall and Zoe Renee. Hall stars as Gail, who has just become the first woman of color to be named “Master” (dean) of a residence hall at Ancaster College, an elite New England institution where Jasmine (Renee) is eagerly beginning her first year.

Even right down to the title this religious comedy debuting appropriately today on a Sunday  in the Premieres section of the Sundance Film Festival can’t seem to decide what it wants to be. Is it Honk For Jesus.? Or is it Save Our Soul.? OR is it as the credits say both? It is a indication of the main problem with this self-styled satire on scandal-ridden Southern Baptist megachurches. Is it supposed to be a comedy? Or is it aiming to be something deeper and more dramatic?  Or is it both?  Even for the best of satirists trying to keep an even tone without watching the whole souffle fall is a slippery slope, one that writer/director Adamma Ebo hasn’t quite solved, but not for lack of trying. As many have discovered, drama is easy, comedy is hard.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticHow to take on the hypocrisy of megachurch culture on a micro budget? That’s the quandary at the center of the Ebo twins’ “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.” An easy-target satire of a disgraced Southern Baptist pastor and the First Lady who stood by his side amidst scandal, packed as a Christopher Guest-style mock documentary, writer-director Adamma Ebo’s indie comedy (produced by sister Adanne) should tickle those who share her skepticism of organized religion — especially the profit-oriented variety — but doesn’t go much deeper than the 15-minute short film on which it’s based.The biggest upgrade here comes from recasting power couple Lee-Curtis and Trinitie Childs with Sterling K.

Angelique Jackson Have you ever heard of praise miming?It’s a style of praise dance popular in some Black churches, where performers swap lyrical movement for miming and often wear mimes’ traditional white face makeup. This form of worship plays a central role in “Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul,” the Sundance stunner from identical twin sisters, writer-director Adamma and producer Adanne Ebo.Their film follows pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K.