What Would Jesus Buy? Shop-ocalypse Now!

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ***

Whatever you end up deciding about Reverend Billy, the star and guiding force of What Would Jesus Buy?, it will be easier to dismiss the good Reverend himself than it will be the many ideas and questions raised by this movie about him. He's a performer, first and last, and he seems to love it. Whether his performances actually help him and his little group of acolytes/choristers achieve their goals is questionable. But the goals themselves, I think, are not.

Reverend Billy, his wife and congregation, would like you, me--all America--to stop shopping, at least to the unruly and crazy extent that our country is doing it these days (or was, before the housing meltdown/gas-price upturn). And so he acts just like a nutty televangelist, declaiming, shouting and carrying on to beat the band. Billy dances, he sings, he preaches with the best of them (or nearly). But his message is subversive and necessary--compared to the babble and slop most of those guys are feeding us.

The film begins with a newscaster repeating our beloved President Bush's post 9/11 appeal to get out there and shop--otherwise the terrorists will have won. From that beyond-belief stupidity, we learn about shopaholics, the nation's deep and continuing credit-card debt, and the plight of third-world workers (adults and children) literally slaving away so that Walmart, Target, Kmart and other cheap outlets will continue to sell their goods cheaply to Americans.

Much of this many of us already know, but What Would Jesus Buy? puts it together in a different manner than we're used to--reminding us along the way (via words and some fabulous visuals) of what Jesus' teachings actually contained and how robbed of meaning and value by most Christian preachers these have now become. The movie takes the form of a trip across country with Billy and his bunch in a big bus (there's a literally smashing shock en route), stopping at one major city after another, as Christmas Day approaches.

We hear various Americans share their thoughts about buying and consuming, the third world, and so forth, and we watch as three young girls discover current slave labor and then try to learn from where the stores that they frequent actually procure their clothes. There's even a moment, as Billy and his group bless an infant, where the film becomes surprisingly deep and meaningful. Overall the film is interesting enough, if a bit willy-nilly. But the director/writer Rob VanAlkemade whips things together with enough intelligence and speed so that the 90 minutes don't drag. This is a Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) production, but the way; that may clue you in to the tone and politics of what's in store.