Southern Gospel

... but, until that story is written someday in the far future, this will do nicely. A tale of a young man with a talent for music but also has a passion for faith. Who carries his Bible with him everywhere. And has many adventures along the way, but ultimately returns to what he loves best. Preaching. To tell the truth, the absolute highest compliment you can give to a faith-based movie is that it does not make a fuss about its roots. This project from writer/director Jeff Smith has an almost two hour run-length, and it fills the time quite nicely. (And passes the Roger Ebert test, you don't look at your watch even once.) As an indie project, it is above average in every aspect. Tight script, solid casting, acting, and direction. Even the music is solid. In fact, you might even wish there was more of it. Recommended. And very under-appreciated. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

I was raised in a catholic family. I was baptized when I was almost three months old, I did my First Holy Communion when I was 11, but I grew up and paved my own path. Today I consider myself an atheist. My father was a Minister of the God's Word for years, and his "masses" (he wasn't a priest, if he was I wouldn't be even born) were the only ones where I felt something. But this something was not connection to God, it was pride of my dad. He loved doing that and maybe he still loves, and THAT was one of the points that strongly connected me to this film.

There are a lot of religion films that are absolutely restricted to people of that specific religion, and not all of them, but the most practitioners; and when they are aiming on people outside of that religion, it's a movie that usually tries to unnaturally convert its audience. "Southern Gospel" doesn't do that.

From the first scene, it criticizes the structure of the Church and the people who are in it. The movie clearly says "cathechesis is useless" (I wanted to use another word but it would not be appropriate here), it's something that draws you away from God more than it brings you closer. Another crucial thing here is the Holy Bible. The way it's used, interpreted in different manners by different characters, maintains the millenary debate about it open, allows the audience to interprete it freely, and for non-religious people, reinforces that "it's just a book".

In a nutshell, the religion here is, more than anything, the character's background. The story is not about religion, it's about a man trying to achieve his dreams. Max Ehrich (who reminded me of Andrew Garfield all the time) surprised me a lot, he seems to believe in every single word of what he's saying, and these compliments can be extended to J. Alphone Nicholson (who reminded me of Jonathan Majors all the time). The friendship between them seems genuine, and is the heart of this project. The rest of the cast is operant, except for Emma Myers. She is not a bad actress, but number one: Enid Sinclair, her character on "Wednesday", is too fresh in my head and she has the same posturing here; and numer two: Emma was definitely the wrong actress to that role, it was a grosser casting error than Sadie Sink in "The Whale", and what was that wig?

Also, despite the script hitting the bullseye on how it treats the audience on the religious aspect, it fails on telling its story properly, especially on the second half of the second act and the first half of the third act. Two essential informations are not well treated. I'm not talking about disrespect, it's far from the case, but about superficiality. Nicholson and Katelyn Nacon's characters deserved a bit more of attention (20 more minutes would help a lot). But I must be honest, I liked the ending. It's kind of a strange comparison, but it reminded me of "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris". It almost had the intention of being "inspirational", so it was not surprising that it took this way. And predictable is quite different from bad.

I came from this film skeptical, but even being far from the target audience (yes, even being more accessible, it's still aiming on religious people), the film conquered me, dissolved my cinism and proved that not all religious movies are bad.

This movie is a very good, strong, faith based movie. It is a bit slower than the movies that I typically watch, but it kept my attention well.

If you are struggling in faith, give this movie a try. You see people go through struggles, abuse, and other hardships, but they always go back to the Lord.

The movie may not be child appropriate for some families, as it does include some scenes, including violent death.

It starts out with "works salvation". This is false doctrine this is false Gospel. No one except Jesus can ever be good enough for heaven. We are all born sinners. It doesn't matter how you dress or never cuss in your life if you haven't accepted Jesus as your Savior you will never be godly enough to God to heaven bc you denied Jesus! Never ever! Jesus loves you and wants you to believe in Him. He will cleanse your sins. You don't have to be good for him. Come to Him as you are, Christ will help you love for him Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Now Sam does eventually mention grace. So that is good. Don't want to spoil the movie though.

You'll walk away from this film feeling hopeful. There are some really great performances and the music is so well done. I can't wait to listen to the soundtrack. The writer/director did not shy away from tough subject matter either.

It's so refreshing to see a Christian film deal with things like addiction, suicide, abuse, and even hypocrisy in the Church. We live in an imperfect world, but there is hope.

If you grew up in southern church culture, this film is for you. If you've walked away from church, this film is for you.

Faith-based entertainment is having a new moment in culture and this one is a great example of a thoughtful, real to life, gritty, TRUE story of redemption.