Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway

CIA Agents D. T. Gagano (Daniel Tadesse) and Palmer Eldritch (Agustin Mateo) are given the assignment of entering the agency's operating system to find and destroy a computer virus that is taking over. The task isn't as straightforward as it would seem, because in addition to the Soviet-Leader-Masked virus there's a Substance, which induces all sorts of hallucinations in its users. Bring in the leader of Beta-Ethiopia, Batfro (Solomon Tashe), and a man who might be Jesus and might be Roy (Guillermo Llanso), and things get complicated really, really fast....

There isn't really a way to describe this film, which could be equally considered science fiction, romance, comedy, thriller, Afro-Futurism and super-psychedelic trip, depending on one's perspective at the moment. Clocking in at a fast 83 minutes, it's exactly the kind of film to see with Montreal's Fantasia Festival audience, people who love genre and love gonzo and most of all, love movies. Director Miguel Llanso's earlier film, "Crumbs," also played at Fantasia, though I must say that I didn't really understand it; despite my description above, "Jesus Shows You...." is much more coherent - and hilarious. And a great stomping shaggy dog's tale to boot!

I was going to begin this title with "Surreal", but if you're going to talk about a film that's clearly inspired by Phillip K. Dick's fiction that's kind of redundant. The basic plot bears quite a few points of similarity to one of the author's lesser-known novels, "Ubik"; there's even a major character named "Palmer Eldritch" -- as in Dick's novel "The Three Stigmata of". Which also featured an alien hallucinogen.

So the film isn't shy about acknowledging its antecedents. Along with lots of other influences from all over the place. Whether you'll like it or not probably depends on whether you enjoy that type of story. But seriously: "Worst movie ever"? No way. I really wish reviewers would stop using this as shorthand for "This was confusing/I didn't understand it."

Which is a perfectly valid opinion. I can't claim to have completely understood it, either, after one viewing. But I enjoyed it enough to think this is worth a couple more looks. Yeah, it's got its rough edges, but it also has real heart and creativity.

Despite what some people may say about this film, this film itself is quite unique, and quite entertaining at that! With its exotic writing, acting, and overall film methods, it definitely in my opinion is worth a watch.

Whether you like it or not you are unlikely to ever see anything similar. If you liked space cop or kung fury this deserves a look. Its much wierder, at times it's Jodorowski level wierd. I dont even know if i liked it but im glad i watched it.

Bottom line: Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway is a bizarre experience that I think *most people* will not enjoy. You *really* have to like weird stuff to get into this, and I enjoyed the experience.

The best description of this movie I saw: "It was a bad movie, but a great hour long video"

I love weird stuff in general, and I was really torn on my rating for this one. They made some decisions that I just didn't find funny, which were pervasive throughout, but other people in my group really enjoyed them. I be the consensus would fall in the 5-7 range. I liked the way they ended it and a lot of the scenes were bizarre in ways I loved, so I put it in the middle.

I feel like It has some similar *vibes* as Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas: it's unclear exactly what's going on with the "story" for a lot of it, and there are incredibly weird visuals like super-zooms on people's faces. It felt like old YouTube videos/memes.

The budget likely was non-existent, but they were able to turn that into the insane fever-dream they set out for.