Honk for Jesus

Adamma and Adanne Ebo, the sisters behind Peacock's megachurch mockumentary, on early inspirations, striking the right tone, and their Coen brothers goal.

[American Vandal](https://www.avclub.com/tv/reviews/american-vandal) and it is fantastic. And then I sort of revamped it for the short, knowing that I wanted the short to be a proof of concept for an eventual feature. Adamma Ebo: We really wanted the faux documentary aspect of it because we are exploring in the film a few things, but one is: What is the truth? And I was like, ‘Wow, this is strikingly similar.’ But something that I really wanted to highlight was that there is meaning and beauty in a lot of it. And a lot of folks take documentary filmmaking and storytelling as fact and the truth and that what you’re seeing is absolute. And so I don’t think we could have made this a hard-line drama at all. And that’s why it was important to me to give Lee-Curtis a sermon that is moving. Because this is the reality for a lot of people, including myself: you hear some of these folks speak and you’re like, “This means something to me, this moves me.” And I feel like that sort of perspective hasn’t really been shown, how lovely it is and can be. AVC: And then the seeds of Honk For Jesus. Writer-director Adamma Ebo and her producer sister Adanne Ebo are just that, especially with the arrival of Brown and Regina Hall](https://www.avclub.com/regina-hall-sterling-k-brown-get-real-about-faith-an-1849486322) as pastor and first lady Lee-Curtis and Trinitie Childs, who are attempting to document their recovery from a highly uncomfortable scandal that has seen most of their flock flee to a competing congregation.

“Honk for Jesus,” Adamma Ebo's directorial debut based on her own short film, is centered on a pair ripe for parody: Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Brown) and his loyal wife, Trinitie (Hall), leaders of an Atlanta-area Southern Baptist megachurch called Wander ...

There isn’t much that seems natural or lifelike in “Honk for Jesus,” including the church itself. Some scenes are staged with a film crew hovering around, while others — like one of the couple in bed at night — are simply filmed like a movie, with no excuse for the camera’s presence. The mockumentary has always been a dependable way to satirize not just a character or two but a subset of society.

Sterling K. Brown, Regina Hall, and Adamma and Adanne Ebo talk to Shondaland about their new church comedy.

As for the debates sure to ensue with the release of Honk for Jesus, Brown and Hall welcome the conversations. To bring their vision to life, casting the roles of Lee-Curtis and Trinitie was key, and Regina Hall was their top pick to play the dutiful First Lady. The casting for the charismatic but deeply troubled Lee-Curtis proved to be more of a challenge. Hall, who made her film debut as stripper-with-a-heart-of-gold Candy in the 1999 hit rom-com The Best Man, has built a filmography over the past two decades showcasing her gift for both the dramatic and comedic, which made her the ideal choice to play the highs and lows of Trinitie. To research their roles, both Brown and Hall went online for inspiration. The Ebo sisters’ acknowledgment of these conflicting points of view led to a more balanced and nuanced script. Brown on their casting wish list, and while there was no doubt about Brown’s dramatic chops, “We wanted to make sure he was funny,” as the Ebo sisters jokingly put it. A few months later, the film was chosen to be part of the lineup for the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. But after a scandal forces their church to temporarily close, Trinitie and Lee-Curtis must reopen their church and rebuild their congregation to make the biggest comeback that commodified religion has ever seen,” according to the The movie began as a 2018 short film, written by Adamma, that was named to the 2019 Hit List and selected for the 2019 Sundance Screenwriters Intensive. is a satirical mockumentary that follows Trinitie Childs (Regina Hall), “the proud First Lady of a Southern Baptist megachurch who, together with her husband, Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. The relationship between the Black community and church is, in a word, complicated.

Regina Hall (Trinitie Childs). Playing Trinitie Childs — a disgraced megachurch First Lady struggling to get back on top after a scandal — in Honk for Jesus.

Look for his name in just about any article related to Batman. Also in 2022, he starred in the indie dramedy The Send-Off. Also in 2022, Crute starred in another movie about people trying to rebuild their reputation called Tankhouse and in Blumhouse’s [Peacock original, queer horror flick, They/Them](https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/peacocks-theythem-review-kevin-bacons-queer-horror-movie-offers-scares-laughs-and-an-emotional-story). cast (he made his acting debut in Season 1 Another notable Atlanta guest star in the Honk For Jesus. [classic Nickelodeon shows](https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2552493/9-great-classic-nickelodeon-shows-you-can-stream-on-cbs-all-access) All That and Kenan & Kel, and horror fans might know her from 2001’s Jeepers Creepers, [writer and director Mike Flanagan](https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2571964/haunting-of-hill-house-and-other-great-mike-flanagan-tv-shows-and-movies-and-how-to-watch-them)’s Before I Wake, and her guest spots on Outcast, Season 2 of Stranger Things, and the TV series adaptation of The Purge. “Robbin’ Season”) and the Save Your Soul. He first broke out in 2011 as the creator and star of the comedy seres Day Buy Day with Onye-Ala, before making his feature-film debut in another mockumentary style religious commentary: Ti West’s 2013 horror flick The Sacrament. In 2008, she made her acting debut as the lead of crime drama, American Violet, and appeared in fact-based sports drama, The Express, years before starring in another acclaimed athlete biopic — 2013’s [42 with Chadwick Boseman ](https://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/42-6366.html)— with a role in director Steve McQueen’s 2011 drama, Shame, in between. [best Marvel movies](https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2471657/ranking-every-marvel-studios-movie-according-to-cinemablend) as Black Panther’s N’Jobu (after perviously working with Chadwick Boseman in Marshall), the [Predator movies](https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/every-predator-movie-ranked-including-prey) as CIA agent Traeger, and the Frozen movies as [Mattias in the 2019 sequel](https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2485012/why-frozen-iis-sterling-k-brown-loves-to-be-a-character-of-color-in-arendelle). Please be seated as we give praise to (and explain who plays whom in) the Honk for Jesus.

Review By: Jonathan W. Hickman. Film Details: Director: Adamma Ebo. Cast Regina Hall, Sterling K. Brown, Nicole Beharie, Conphidance, and Austin Crute.

And most of the film is shot in empty church locations with few actors giving the production a vacant quality. Possibly, the idea was to pull a “Spinal Tap” and shoot this movie on the cheap. Then the scope abruptly changes to a familiar narrative cinematic structure, and we see events that are not part of a documentary (like Lee-Curtis and Trinitie in their bedroom). A documentary crew led by an unseen, award-winning documentarian has access to Lee-Curtis and Trinitie as they attempt to recover from the growing disaster. For example, we see events unfold between Lee-Curtis and Trinitie in a naturalistic documentary format. Save Your Soul.” is a scabrous and unpleasant dissection of the dark side of prosperity theology.

The best thing about this limp satire, directed by Adamma Ebo and co-starring Sterling K. Brown, is Regina Hall's performance.

But Honk for Jesus gets as lost in its search for a message as Lee-Curtis and Trinitie do in their quest for redemption. [Noah Baumbach Turned White Noise Into a 1980s Spielbergian Spectacle (Sort of)](//www.vulture.com/article/noah-baumbachs-white-noise-is-a-spielbergian-spectacle.html) [… Ebo does have a decent eye; she uses wide shots effectively, notably in a scene where Trinitie can be seen entering a gym in the background just as Lee-Curtis has finished hitting on one of the male members of the documentary crew in the foreground. Trinitie could have existed as mere caricature but in that moment and some other key scenes, Hall transforms her into an actual human being expelling years worth of resentment and despair for the first time. Written and directed by first-timer Adamma Ebo, Honk for Jesus bills itself as a satire but is at its best, like Hall, in more dramatic scenes. HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones, for example, covers similar territory with more bite and uproarious humor than this mostly tepid attempt at a send-up can summon.

By Jake Coyle | Associated Press. Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown give fully committed performances in “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul,” so why does the ...

There isn’t much that seems natural or lifelike in “Honk for Jesus,” including the church itself. Some scenes are staged with a film crew hovering around, while others — like one of the couple in bed at night — are simply filmed like a movie, with no excuse for the camera’s presence. The mockumentary has always been a dependable way to satirize not just a character or two but a subset of society.

'Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul' — Ebo sisters spoke exclusively with 'Distractify' about film's themes and Sterling K. Brown's satirical performance.

She's been in the game doing this flawlessly for [years], like, I learned so much just being in the space with her timing," she gushed, telling us that the actors were able to play off of one another during the scene. According to Nichole, audiences are only seeing the "tiniest" bit of what transpired on set. And so getting to play this woman who is a partner or co-pastor was really interesting, and a lot of fun in juxtaposition to Sterling and Regina, where she's sort of behind the man," she added. Pastor Lee-Curtis and first lady Trinitie are not ready to give up their position within their congregation. Brown to craft the complex personas of Pastor Lee-Curtis and Trinitie Childs. Save Your Soul](https://www.distractify.com/p/sterling-k-brown-wife) is a mockumentary film that questions the ideals surrounding organized religion and religious leaders.

Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall star in this satire about the pastor and first lady of a Southern Baptist mega-church who scramble to reclaim their past ...

She plays Shakura Sumpter, the slick co-pastor—with her husband, Keon (Conphidance, who had his breakthrough in the TV series Little America)—of a rising church that’s likely to cash in on the misfortunes of Wander to Greater Paths. But it’s his dutiful wife, Trinitie ( [Regina Hall](https://time.com/5505434/regina-hall-black-monday/)), who’s left to do most of the heavy lifting. Lee-Curtis shouts authoritatively through a bullhorn, while Trinitie is left to the indignity of hopping around in her high heels and church finery, holding up a sign to entice passersby. Brown](https://time.com/collection/most-influential-people-2018/5217548/sterling-k-brown/)), the staggeringly charismatic pastor of Atlanta’s Wander to Greater Paths Baptist Church, is the source of all the trouble, having instigated more than one illicit affair. When Lee-Curtis and Trinitie become desperate to drum up attendees for the reopening, they turn to standing by the highway, advertising their upcoming event as if it were a circus—a portent if there ever were one. Save Your Soul, writer-director Adamma Ebo’s satire about the pastor and first lady of a Southern Baptist mega-church who scramble to reclaim their past glory—and keep their marriage alive—after a scandal sends their congregation scattering.

Sterling K Brown and Regina Hall are left stranded in a disappointingly blunt and consistently unfunny attempt to ridicule religious hypocrisy.

Trinitie is the one who carries her husband’s water on camera and in the community and is thoroughly humiliated in the final act. At best, the film is an abstract commentary on a culture it doesn’t fully understand; at worst, it’s half-hearted creative license. Worse, Lee-Curtis has been grooming teenage boys and can’t even help coming on to a young sound guy in the documentary crew. Black church is all about feeling – the building, the people, the message. He was a spellbinding spectacle, and it takes a mega personality to fill the pews, close the book deals and keep TV money and donations streaming in. Fold in a mockumentary-style POV, and it’s clear the film would have you take it for a comedy. Brown certainly has the comedic and dramatic chops to go there. Most of the deserters have found a home with a husband and wife pastoring team who used to be part of Childs’s ministry, and is now poised to overtake it. In the privacy of their Escalade, they rap along to filthy hip-hop music. The Jordan Peele-produced film was stretched from a 2018 short of the same name and the 90-minute version stars Sterling K Brown and Regina Hall as Lee-Curtis and Trinitie Childs – respectively, the pastor and first lady of a beleaguered Atlanta megachurch mired in scandal. (“He coulda been cloudy as Kahlúa,” Alizé says while officiating the funeral of a man he’s desperately trying not to disparage, “but Jevus made him clear as vodka!”) For so many Americans the Black church is a rite of passage of joys, conflicts and contradictions – which is what makes preacher portrayals so magnetic, after all. “When we were filming at the church and the choir was singing,” Vance told Jet magazine in 1996, “the Holy Spirit took over.

Complex caught up with the 'Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.' stars to talk all about their characters, megachurches, and working with the Ebo twins.

This is a story that I can stand behind, and they told it in a way that was funny because there’s a lot of medicine in the film, but you need that spoonful of sugar for the medicine to go down. When you add in the ingredient of faith and then you have to show what faith means to that woman and what the covenant of marriage means to that woman, then maybe you can begin, at least, whether you agree or disagree, you can have understanding and maybe the understanding can lead just to compassion for the decisions that people make that you may not make. [Laughs.] We met those young women, and I just have so much respect for their work and outside of loving them, loving that they’re Black, loving all that stuff, I really responded to what they were doing, what they wrote. And is it a story that I can stand behind? I responded to everything about them, their work ethic, their passion and their knowledge emotionally of this subject, their vision, just everything they put forward. I wanted people to have that for Trinitie because I had that when I read [the script] and I know the filmmakers wanted to show a glimpse into the emotional world of the first lady and the emotional role that she plays in her husband’s life or for him because he relies on her a lot more than people on the outside would know. I thought to look into a woman who plays that position, the toll that that takes on who she is as a woman, on her marriage, on her identity as an individual, on how that makes her feel about herself, but then to have that so that people can see compassion toward her. If I played a character that people like all the time, there would be a part of me that would be a little saddened by that. I think also being married for 16 years and knowing everything that goes into making a partnership work and then even more so with the added elements of Lee-Curtis and Trinitie was something fun to explore. Complex caught up with Hall and Brown to chat all about Honk for Jesus, their relationships with the church, working with the Ebo twins, and more. They present a united front when the documentary cameras are on, but the turmoil and the deep brokenness in their marriage are also captured when they’re not looking. As they are preparing to relaunch, the pair also have to face the realities of their marriage behind the scenes.

Adding to the sitcom vibes, Honk For Jesus is a mockumentary-style satire. A fictional documentary film crew has been tasked with filming the supposed comeback ...

So why not capitalize on the good stuff, give the people what they want, and just go ahead and give Hall and Brown a Honk for Jesus spin-off sitcom? That’s a shame, because watching Brown and Hall do their thing together is undoubtedly the best part of the movie. “Don’t it look like I worship the Lord?!” You do understand why he’s the way that he is—once upon a time, he would scream at his congregation, and they would scream back. Lee Curtis is the showman, preening and prancing for the camera, totally unaware of how he’s coming off. Of course, Honk For Jesus is not, in fact, a sitcom. Honk For Jesus should be a sitcom.

Here's all the latest info about Honk For Jesus. Save Your Souls, starring Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown, including the plot, trailer, and more.

Honk for Jesus. Adamma Ebo wrote and directed Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul with her identical twin sister and filmmaking partner Adanne Ebo serving as producer. [This Is Us](https://collider.com/tag/this-is-us), with which he made history by becoming the first African American actor to win the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a TV drama. [Austin Crute (They/Them)](https://collider.com/austin-crute-interview-olivia-wilde-they-slash-them-tankhouse/) as Khalil, Nicole Beharie (Miss Juneteenth) as Shakura Sumpter, and Conphidance (Little America) as Keon Sumpter, alongside Devere Rogers, Avis Marie Barnes, Olivia D. Get my honks for the Lord!” Shake it for the Lord! [co-hosting the 2022 Academy Awards](https://collider.com/oscars-hosts-2022-amy-schumer-regina-hall-wanda-sykes/). You will need to be a Peacock Premium subscriber to stream the movie and subscriptions cost $4.99 a month, in case you'd like to watch the film at home. But after a scandal forces their church to temporarily close, Trinitie and Lee-Curtis must reopen their church and rebuild their congregation to make the biggest comeback that commodified religion has ever seen. Instead, the documentarian captures the high-energy narcissism of Lee-Curtis and the pent-up fury of his wife, who finds herself more and more unable to enable her incorrigible husband. The film, which premiered at the 2022 [Sundance Film Festival](https://collider.com/tag/sundance-film-festival/) to critical acclaim, chronicles the desperate attempt of a Southern Baptist megachurch power couple to stage a comeback after a spectacular fall from grace. Save Your Soul.](https://collider.com/sterling-k-brown-regina-hall-megachurch-movie-honk-for-jesus-save-your-soul/) takes a swing anyway...

Specialty films from Sundance and Cannes will also move into U.S. cinemas later this month. “Arthouse theaters are behind where they were in 2019, but I ...

[here](https://deadline.com/2022/02/peter-von-kant-review-francois-ozon-berlin-film-festival-1234930970/). Deadline review [here.](https://deadline.com/2021/09/toronto-review-saloum-1234832154/) Save your Soul](https://deadline.com/tag/honk-for-jesus-save-your-soul/). Deadline review [here](https://deadline.com/2022/01/sundance-review-sterling-k-brown-regina-hall-honk-for-jesus-save-your-soul-1234917971/). Universal and Imax are presenting [Jaws](https://deadline.com/tag/jaws/) on 285 screens. [Burial](https://deadline.com/tag/burial/) written and directed by Ben Parker on 24 screens. [Focus Features](https://deadline.com/tag/focus-features/)’ [Honk For Jesus. [Saloum](https://deadline.com/tag/saloum/) opens on two screens — the IFC Center and Alamo Drafthouse in downtown LA as well as on streamer Shudder. Driven by relentless optimism, a passion for their craft and a sense of national pride, they form Zimbabwe’s first national wine tasting team and set their sights on the coveted title of World Wine Tasting Champions. Stories and word of mouth on these can sometimes neutralize critics (who are giving the film a 23% on Rotten Tomatoes). [a six-minute standing ovation](https://deadline.com/2022/09/tar-standing-ovation-venice-cate-blanchett-1235105500/) in Venice), Timothée Chalamet in Luca Guadagnino’s Bones And All (also [just screened on the Lido](https://deadline.com/2022/09/bones-and-all-review-timothee-chalamet-venice-film-festival-1235106516/)), Empire of Light with Olivia Colman, set to world premiere at Telluride, and a raft of others are slated for fall theatrical release. [offer $3 movie tickets for all shows and discounted concessions](https://deadline.com/2022/08/national-cinema-day-offers-3-movies-at-participating-theaters-1235101722/) in a bid to thank moviegoers and jolt moviegoing.

Here's how you can watch the mockumentary Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul., starring Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown.

The film, out in theaters and streaming on Peacock now, stars Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall.