LOL, Sooo wanted to like this until about 1/3 of the way through...it got POLITICAL!
No joking, Sean Patrick Flannery does an absolutely amazing job in this role and the setup is pretty darn believable! The director and producers really did pull off a professional, low budget think-piece that required very little suspension of disbelief for about 45 minutes of screen time.
And then it got preachy. Like literal religionist preachy. And worse than that, anti-abortion right-wing preachy. At this point I found myself regretting watching the thing. As in they literally put forth the religionist notions that assisted suicide and abortion are ALWAYS evil at ANY stage of the game. How pathetic, but also how clever.
90% of the ultra-positive reviews are clearly from religionists. Probably ultra-right Catholics and Protestants who think that even the "morning after" pill is murder and that allowing and helping your 90 year old terminal cancer patient relative to end their own life is "morally" wrong according to some sky god and fake religious text. Allow me to interject a bit of historical fact: There is no proof that Jesus Christ ever existed in the manner depicted in the New Testament. Even worse, the Old Testament is full of straight up evil - and most of it was ordered and ordained by God, not Satan.
But then the film starts getting historical facts wrong or quite intentionally misrepresenting them to drive home it's religionist points. Moloch for example. As if child sacrifice was verboten in the (pre) Christian Abrahamic religions! It wasn't. And it goes on from there.
Look, from the perspective of a VERY well executed independent, low budget movie that's also VERY well acted (Flannery again, but also the shrink), this is a damned entertaining ride.
But after watching the whole thing and thinking it through, it's nothing more than a preachy holier-than-thou bunch of faith-based nonsense that expects the viewer to accept demons (and thus SkyGod and the Old Testament) as something other than the fairy tales that they are.
This is not a good lesson in logic, morals or life unless you are already prone to believe (or preach) ridiculous Christianist rightwing theology and politics.
A+ to the director and producers as well as to Flannery and the Psychiatrist actor.
F- for the not-so-cleverly-disguised Kool Aid forcing religio-political messaging pretending to be entertainment.
Weighted average: D.
And then it got preachy. Like literal religionist preachy. And worse than that, anti-abortion right-wing preachy. At this point I found myself regretting watching the thing. As in they literally put forth the religionist notions that assisted suicide and abortion are ALWAYS evil at ANY stage of the game. How pathetic, but also how clever.
90% of the ultra-positive reviews are clearly from religionists. Probably ultra-right Catholics and Protestants who think that even the "morning after" pill is murder and that allowing and helping your 90 year old terminal cancer patient relative to end their own life is "morally" wrong according to some sky god and fake religious text. Allow me to interject a bit of historical fact: There is no proof that Jesus Christ ever existed in the manner depicted in the New Testament. Even worse, the Old Testament is full of straight up evil - and most of it was ordered and ordained by God, not Satan.
But then the film starts getting historical facts wrong or quite intentionally misrepresenting them to drive home it's religionist points. Moloch for example. As if child sacrifice was verboten in the (pre) Christian Abrahamic religions! It wasn't. And it goes on from there.
Look, from the perspective of a VERY well executed independent, low budget movie that's also VERY well acted (Flannery again, but also the shrink), this is a damned entertaining ride.
But after watching the whole thing and thinking it through, it's nothing more than a preachy holier-than-thou bunch of faith-based nonsense that expects the viewer to accept demons (and thus SkyGod and the Old Testament) as something other than the fairy tales that they are.
This is not a good lesson in logic, morals or life unless you are already prone to believe (or preach) ridiculous Christianist rightwing theology and politics.
A+ to the director and producers as well as to Flannery and the Psychiatrist actor.
F- for the not-so-cleverly-disguised Kool Aid forcing religio-political messaging pretending to be entertainment.
Weighted average: D.
- pacocharte
- Aug 17, 2023