Jesus Revolution
★★ 1/2
Jesus Revolution is a perplexing film. I've always been vocal about not being the biggest fan of faith-based films. They have certainly made leaps and bounds beyond the quality that I got fed at my church when I was teenager in the '90s. And that is certainly one thing that this film has going for it. It looks really good and feels professional, but it seems a bit inconsistent with the messaging that it wants to get across. Especially with Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), who we never quite get a good read on. At once he is a hero, but then despised, then through the end credits is revived again. I never truly believed in the arc of the youngster who finds direction through this movement (Joel Courtney) but was extremely thankful for his love interest (Anna Grace Barlow) who really brings much needed feeling and charm to the film. There are some veteran actors (Kelsey Grammer & Kimberly Williams-Paisley) who try to give this story some emotional heft, but everybody is put into situations that are supposed to feel authentic to real life but come across as trite.
This movie desperately tries to find a conflict to grasp onto, but as an audience we are flailed about until everything just sorta ends with a smile on its face. I don't think we needed a full-length, narrative feature to highlight what was so impactful about this church movement. I'd like to think that the journalistic efforts that are depicted in the film probably would have sufficed.
