The question raised by WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY?, and it’s a loaded one, isn’t the eponymous one, but rather why it is that it’s a performance artist that is the one protesting against the commercialization of Christmas, and not the actual ministers of the kid from Nazareth. It’s more than just the orgy of gift-buying at the holiday season that comes in for a smack down here, but as the more virulent symptom of an economy gone off the rails, it does make for a potent focal point. That it’s delivered by a guy who has been legally barred from entering any Starbucks, ever, or even being within 250 yards of one, only adds to his credibility.
The performance artist is the Reverend Billy of The Church of Stop Shopping Now, the creation of Bill Talen. He doesn’t want to do away with Christmas, he does, however, want to slay the monster that it’s become by marching into shopping malls and attempting to exorcise the cash registers he finds inside. He’s also not averse to taking confessions from shopping sinners, and performing an impromptu baptism while crusading. The documentary covers his tumultuous, month-long cross-country tour dedicated to exposing the Shopocalypse. He and his gospel choir put on a show and spread their message of liberation from the shackles of spending using the surprisingly apt idiom of an old-time religious revival show, right down to the canting oration, the spiffy suits, and the hair piled as high as a deluxe meringue pie.
This isn’t just an easy shot at consumerism, it becomes, instead, an incisive look at the cognitive disconnect of the public at large, that hates the stress, emotional and financial, of the holidays, but nonetheless whole-heartedly joins in the mayhem like so many lemmings joyously tumbling over the cliff of hype, debt, and the illusion of instant gratification. And it doesn’t stop there. Things that have been hiding in plain sight are suddenly obvious: landscapes deliberately designed strictly for shopping, the Trojan Horse of globalization, and a startling revelation about the subtle restrictions on free speech being perpetrated in the most unlikely places. And as for what Reverend Billy would buy, that’s answered with brilliant simplicity. It gets cold in the midwest, he needs a sweater to keep warm, and so he buys what he needs. He is also careful to look for the “made in America” label, and he to buy where his dollars will go back into the community.
The doc, cleverly constructed with a hi-octane drive by Rob VanAlkemade, includes piquant moments of the Church of Stop Shopping Now in full voice parodying traditional carols with witty put-downs, and later dithering over the rows of tchotchkes for sale during one of their tour stops. He also does a deft portrait of both Reverend Billy and of Talen. There is the précis on the latter’s childhood moving quickly to the epiphany in Times Square during its Disneyfication process, when, as a lone wolf crying in the uban wilderness, Talen became Reverend Billy, put Mickey on a cross, scrounged a pulpit, and began wailing on the ills of consumerism as an end destination. Highlights of the tour’s adventures are intercut with an invigorating mix of talking heads and vignettes considering, more or less soberly, the credit card debt debacle, the history of Christmas as a purely corporate creation, and clergy shaking their collective heads in dismay over the folly of humankind. The best is one of these heads pointing out rather archly that they only time Jesus lost his temper was over the moneychangers in the Temple charging usurious interest rates.
Billy himself emerges as an enigmatic character, full of righteous indignation channeled into a bombastic preaching style. Yet the alter-ego is soft-spoken even while delivering a reasoned diatribe against the sin of consumerism. He also frets during a quiet moment with his wife, Church of Stop Shopping director, Savitri Durkee, that his protest at WalMart headquarters fizzled when his rant took an unexpected turn and he could think of nothing better to do than launch himself into some shrubbery. I thought it was pretty good, myself, if a bit poignant. The Reverend, however, is star quality personified, charming those sent to arrest him, getting the attention of frenzied and very focused shoppers while bringing them some provocative good cheer, and even in civilian clothes, moved to an impromptu fire-and-brimstone preaching on fossil fuels while filling the tour bus. That it inspires bemusement and a quick rolling up of a window from a fellow re-fueler is more a reflection on the preachee rather than preacher.
WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY? ends in the most logical place: Disneyland. With Reverend Billy staging a surprise guerilla raid on the amusement park’s Christmas parade, he comes full circle, taking on the Mouse that sent him over the edge and on the Mouse’s home turf. This inspired act of a seasoned and very savvy agent provocateur reveals the dark side of the happiest place on earth. It’s not just funny, it’s downright creepy, not to mention one of the most stunning metaphor ever made manifest on the silver screen.
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