If you’ve ever spent a Sunday morning in the American South, you know the vibe. The smell of expensive cologne mixing with hairspray. The rhythmic swaying of a choir that sounds like a professional recording. The electricity of a megachurch. Adamma Ebo’s film Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. hits that specific nerve with a precision that’s almost uncomfortable. It’s a mockumentary, sure. But for anyone who grew up in that world, it feels more like a documentary with a very expensive wardrobe budget.
The movie follows Trinitie Childs, played by a magnificent Regina Hall, and her husband, Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs, portrayed by Sterling K. Brown. They are the First Lady and Pastor of Wander to Greater Paths, a Southern Baptist megachurch that fell from grace. Hard. After a massive scandal involving Lee-Curtis, their congregation of 25,000 evaporated overnight. Now, they’re trying to stage the ultimate comeback on Easter Sunday.
It’s awkward. It’s biting. Honestly, it’s kind of heartbreaking if you look past the Prada suits.
The Complicated Reality of the Megachurch Scandal
What makes Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. work isn’t just the jokes about bedazzled hats or the sheer ego of Lee-Curtis. It’s the way it mirrors real-world headlines. We've seen this play out in real life dozens of times. A charismatic leader builds an empire, gets caught in a web of financial or sexual misconduct, and then tries to "pivot" back to the pulpit.
The film doesn't name names, but you can see the DNA of real-world figures like Eddie Long or even the fall of the Hillsong empire reflected in the narrative. The Ebo sisters (Adamma wrote and directed, Adanne produced) grew up in this culture. They know the "bless your heart" vernacular. They know the specific way a First Lady has to keep her face frozen in a smile while her world is literally burning down around her.
Regina Hall is the MVP here. She does this thing with her eyes where you can see Trinitie’s soul dying in real-time while she’s defending her husband’s "ministry." It’s a masterclass in the "stand by your man" trope taken to a pathological extreme.
Why the Mockumentary Style Matters
Why go with a faux-documentary format? Because it forces the characters to perform.
Throughout the movie, the aspect ratio shifts. When the "documentary" cameras are rolling, it’s wide and cinematic. The Childs are in "on" mode. They are performing holiness. But when the cameras supposedly stop, the frame tightens. We see the grit. We see the screaming matches over Italian marble and the desperate, failed attempts at intimacy.
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This stylistic choice highlights the performative nature of high-stakes religion. In Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul., the gospel isn't just a message; it’s a brand. And like any brand, it needs a successful relaunch after a PR nightmare.
The Sumpters and the Rivalry of the New Guard
The film introduces a fascinating foil to the Childs: Keon and Shakira Sumpter. They are the younger, fresher couple played by Conphidance and Nicole Beharie. They’ve opened a church nearby, and they’re siphoning off the Childs’ former members.
This isn't just a petty rivalry. It represents a generational shift in the church. While Lee-Curtis is stuck in the old-school, flamboyant "prosperity gospel" aesthetic, the Sumpters represent a more polished, modern, and perhaps equally ambitious version of the same thing.
The scene where the two couples meet is pure tension. It’s all smiles and "Praise the Lords," but the underlying venom is palpable. It exposes a hard truth about the business side of faith. It’s a market. There is a limited number of "souls" (and tithing checkbooks) in a given zip code, and the competition for them is cutthroat.
The Problem with "Prosperity"
We have to talk about the money. The Childs live in a mansion that would make a tech mogul blush. Their closet is larger than most people’s apartments.
Critics often point to Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. as a critique of the Prosperity Gospel—the idea that God rewards faith with financial wealth. Lee-Curtis uses his wealth as proof of his righteousness. If he’s rich, God must be happy with him, right? But the movie asks a darker question: what happens to that theology when the money stays but the people leave?
You see Lee-Curtis sitting in an empty sanctuary that seats thousands, still wearing a suit that costs five figures. The disconnect is jarring. It suggests that for some leaders, the "soul" part of "save your soul" became secondary to the "honk" part—the noise, the show, the vanity.
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Behind the Scenes of the Production
The film actually started as a short film back in 2018. The Ebo sisters had a clear vision from the start. They didn't want to make a movie that mocked faith itself. Instead, they wanted to examine the vessel of faith.
Sterling K. Brown took a huge risk with this role. We usually see him as the moral compass (think This Is Us). Here, he’s deeply flawed, narcissistic, and struggling with his own identity and sexuality in a way that he can't even admit to himself. It’s a loud performance, but it has these quiet, devastating moments of realization.
The film was picked up by Focus Features and Monkeypaw Productions (Jordan Peele’s company) after it debuted at Sundance. That tells you everything you need to know about its DNA. It has that Peele-esque quality of using satire to poke at deep-seated societal rot.
Reception and Misunderstandings
When it hit theaters and Peacock simultaneously in 2022, the reaction was divided.
Some audiences expected a straight-up comedy like The First Family or something more slapstick. What they got was a dark, satirical character study. Some religious viewers felt it was an attack on the Black church. Others felt it was a long-overdue reckoning with the "untouchable" status of megachurch pastors.
The truth is somewhere in the middle. The film loves the culture it’s depicting—you can see it in the vibrant colors and the respect given to the musicality of the service—but it hates the hypocrisy. It’s a "tough love" movie.
Breaking Down the Ending (Without Giving Too Much Away)
The climax doesn't offer a neat resolution. There’s no grand confession or a magical return to the top. Instead, we get a scene on the side of a road—the literal "honk for Jesus" moment.
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Trinitie is in full liturgical mime makeup (yes, really), standing in the heat, holding a sign. It’s humiliating. It’s the ultimate degradation of a woman who once considered herself royalty. And yet, she stays.
This is the most haunting part of Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. It’s not about the pastor’s downfall; it’s about the cost of loyalty. It’s about the people who have invested so much of their identity into a lie that the truth becomes a luxury they can’t afford.
Actionable Takeaways for Movie Lovers and Critics
If you haven't seen it yet, or if you're planning a rewatch, here’s how to actually digest what Adamma Ebo is putting on the table:
- Watch the background characters. The film uses real people and "extras" who look like actual congregants. Their reactions to Lee-Curtis’s antics are often more telling than the dialogue.
- Pay attention to the sound design. The silence in the empty church is intentional. It’s meant to feel cavernous and lonely.
- Look for the "First Lady" tropes. Research the history of the "First Lady" in the Black church to understand why Trinitie’s role is so complex and why her "submission" is seen as a position of power.
- Compare it to The Righteous Gemstones. While Gemstones is a broad, hilarious caricature, Honk for Jesus is a more grounded, satirical look at the same industry. Seeing them back-to-back provides a fascinating look at how different creators handle the "corrupt preacher" archetype.
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. remains a vital piece of satire because it refuses to give its characters an easy out. It doesn't offer a cheap redemption arc. It forces the audience to sit in the grease and the grime of a tarnished crown. It’s not always a comfortable watch, but it’s an essential one for anyone interested in the intersection of fame, faith, and the fragile human ego.
If you’re looking for a film that challenges the "prosperity" narrative while giving two of the best actors of our generation room to breathe, this is it. Just don’t expect a choir to sing you a happy ending.
What to Do Next
To get the most out of the themes presented in the film, consider exploring the following steps:
- Watch the original 2018 short film: If you can find it, compare the tonal shifts between the short and the feature-length version to see how the Ebo sisters expanded the world.
- Research the "Liturgical Mime" tradition: Understanding this specific form of worship will make the film's climax significantly more impactful and less "bizarre."
- Analyze the "Public Apology" trope: Look at real-world press conferences from fallen public figures (religious or otherwise) and note the similarities in body language and rhetoric used by Lee-Curtis Childs.
- Host a discussion on the "Institution vs. Faith": Use the film as a starting point to talk about whether it's possible to separate the spiritual message from the flaws of the people delivering it.