I both love and hate the mockumentary format in film (and TV). Shows like The Office and Parks and Recreation can take the simple concept of a TV crew working as tangible, off-screen characters to capture these characters’ intimate moments in a believable way. Of course, the presence of these minor characters can lead to funny moments when characters break the fourth wall to acknowledge the insanity (The Office‘s Jim being the most popular example).
However, the style of the mockumentary can also end up being a mixed bag, having too much in common with the overused found footage genre. In a way, the mockumentary is to comedies what found footage is to horror – when it works, it’s on point, but when it fails, it feels lazy and uninspired. Where does Jesus People fall? Read on and find out.
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Jesus People
Director: Jason Naumann
Rating: N/A
Release Date: April 11, 2014 (limited release)
Fearing that he’s losing his son Eli (Chris Fennessy) to the secular world, Pastor Jerry (Joel McCrary) is desperate to re-connect with him before it’s too late. However, “too late” may not be late enough after a vague medical diagnosis sounds severe. Pastor Jerry, fearing his death is fast approaching, attempts to reach out to Eli by forming a Christian pop band, Cross My Heart. After tapping former popular Christian singer Gloria Hamming (Edi Patterson), church member Zak Crowning (Damon Pfaff), beauty pageant winner Cara Bosch (Lindsay Stidham), and dedicated youth group teacher Ty Raney (Richard Pierre-Louis), the band records their first single, “Save the World.” When the song grows bigger than any of them imagined, it signals the dissolution of the band just as they were growing big.
The slant behind Jesus People is the hilarity and sometimes conflicting existences of Christian bands. On the one hand, they find success in Christian radio, but the limiting scope isn’t enough for what they want to achieve. When they release a “secular” remix of the song, it shoots up the Top 40 list, but alienates their Christian base. A lot of the humor comes from this controversy where some of the band members aren’t Christian, just playing the part for the means of success. Religion is a touchy subject, especially in the form of a comedy, but Jesus People doesn’t lampoon the religion in a negative way, which was pretty surprising, considering what the film’s about.
The mockumentary style of shooting also benefits the film’s nature. Ty is Jesus People‘s “Jim,” constantly turning to off-screen director Jodi (Nikki Boyer) for assistance or assurance that the banality of some of the group’s discussions is, in fact, real. The breaking of the fourth wall, within the context of the documentary, is also a sly way for Pierre-Louis to look directly at the viewer for that same reaction; usually, this would be cheesy and an all-too-easy way of poking fun at the film for a quick laugh, but it works in Jesus People.
The narrative itself isn’t all too exciting, never outgrowing past the concept of “Hey, let’s film a mockumentary about a Christian pop band,” but the novelty of exactly that (a mockumentary about a Christian pop band) is enough to warrant a look at the film. Characters, albeit one-note and shallow, do at least experience a full arc, with no one character outweighing another, both in terms of character development and screen time. The issue, however, is that it’s just not that funny. There are moments where you’ll chuckle over a cute line or scene, but it never warrants a real laugh out loud reaction.