Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul. opens in theatres and premieres on Peacock next week. The story behind it is amazing. The movie started out as a short film, director Adamma Ebo’s thesis project at UCLA, which then attracted attention from Issa Rae, who promoted it on her channels. After that, Daniel Kaluuya’s production company took notice. Adamma and her identical twin sister, Adanne, then collaborated on turning it into a feature film. Jordan Peele is one of the producers. They cast Regina Hall first and then Sterling K Brown followed. You can read all about howHonk For Jesuscame to be at Varietybut the point is, these are two young female filmmakers who, on their very FIRST full-length film, have been mentored by some of the very best in the business and are now telling original stories with some of the very best in the business. They’re telling the stories they know, and they’re telling stories for their community. This is how it’s supposed to work.
Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul.was a hit at Sundance earlier this year. And the red carpet was last night so…what a ride it’s been for Adamma and Adanne. The movie is about a megachurch pastor, Lee-Curtis, and his wife, Trinity, who are trying to come back from a scandal and decide to do a documentary,The Office-style, chronicling their efforts. This is not the Sterling K Brown as Randall that you might be familiar with. This is Sterling K Brown, SHOWTIME, and he’s amazing. He has to be to match Regina because, as usual, she is mesmerising in her role as Lee’s partner who, at first impression, might not be as extra as her husband but eventually, well, without spoiling, she does what needs to be done. Or, rather, what she thinks needs to be done. Their chemistry is unreal, going from hysterical comedy to thought-provoking drama from one scene to the next.
I interviewed Adamma, Adanne, Regina, and Sterling yesterday and I get why this was such a special project. Regina and Sterling are electric together and for Sterling in particular, you can tell that he really leaned into the opportunity to showcase this side of his talent, to become that guy who is loud and brash and sometimes ridiculous but without losing it to caricature. Also…they’re just really fun to talk to and half the conversation was about Sterling being over the top and the two of them going over the top, doing the interview while sitting on thrones (it makes sense if you’ve seen the trailer), and it ended with Sterling “knighting” me over Zoom.
Also, she looked sooooo good in that sequined pantsuit and he looks really good too in all white with his wife Ryan Michelle Bathé in all black with a hat, for the movie, is totally on theme. So much goodwill happening aroundHonk For Jesus. Save Your Soul. And it feels like the beginning of a really special sibling showbiz partnership for Adamma and Adanne who have much more to come in the pipeline.
