A Genuinely Good Christian Film…

Most "Christian" films I watch leave me annoyed, either because they are too blatant and in your face, or they go so far off script (Like Noah) that you really wonder if you're watching the film you thought you'd paid to see.

So, off the back of this recommendation, I watched this refreshingly different film:



The reviewer said:

Good Christian Movies Are Being Made, but They're Being Ignored.

Audiences largely ignored Believe Me and The Song, which is a true shame, because both movies are explicitly Christian and both made for compelling viewing...

Believe Me is ... a roaring satire of Christian ministry that doubles as a goofy heist movie. It follows three college students who come up with a fake, charity: water-type ministry to pay off their student loans, and then struggle to keep up the act. Watching these guys try to learn the ins and outs of Christian culture is about as funny as any movie got in 2014.

It's not completely clear why these movies failed to capture the same word-of-mouth buzz that accompanied God's Not Dead, but it may be that both ignored lesson No. 2. The morals were not on the bottom shelf, served piping hot and easy to digest. Believe Me avoided easy answers, and The Song did not encourage audiences to text any spiritual imperatives to wayward friends. In short, both movies might have been just a little too challenging.

I think the reviewer is spot on.

It's a film that will make many Christians both laugh and cringe as they see themselves cleverly and satirically reflected in some of the characters. (I was a bit like Gabriel in my university days.) It also shows how the machine of "Christian Industry" plays in the murky shadows of less than squeaky clean ethical practices justifying it with the excuse of protecting the Faithful and the reputation of the ministry.

And whilst we non-American Christians may be tempted to cynically (enviously?) write much of it off as a quirk of the American approach to culture and community, if we are willing to be honest for a moment, these days, we're more like that than ever, especially when we become "too big to fail" in our own eyes.

It isn't available in UK via normal channels, but you can watch interviews, trailers and outtakes or even pay for a VHX download from the official website.