What Would Jesus Buy?

"Possibly the feeblest entry yet in the anti-corporate theatre-of-muckraking genre, What Would Jesus Buy? chronicles a prefabricated cross-country crusade led by the New York-based comedic agitator Reverend Billy (Bill Talen)," writes Bill Weber at Slant. "With lefty agitprop this tepid, the Bush and Clinton clans will be alternating presidencies well into the 22nd century."

"Neatly embedded in the Reverend's strident enunciations of unholy behavior lies the clear-cut delivery of brilliant performance art," writes Eric Kohn in the New York Press. "His ability to raise the ire of authorities illustrates the nature of his brazen cause, but it also shows how his actions are often misconstrued as deleterious or harmful to the public. Ironically enough, the Church of Stop Shopping is mostly nondenominational and apolitical, but unequivocally on-message."

Updated through 11/23.

"Much like [producer Morgan] Spurlock's hit Super Size Me, this production is slick, well-paced, and tremendously entertaining," writes Julia Wallace in the Voice. "Unfortunately, WWJB never pushes past the surface of [Reverend Billy's] shtick to explore the deeper forces behind our impulse to buy."

"At the very least, the film might make a viewer think twice about that next purchase at the Gap," suggests Laura Kern in the New York Times.

IndieWIRE interviews director Rob Vanalkemade.

A collection of only somewhat related links from Bookforum: "Shopping for God."

"What Would Jesus Buy? is one of those all-too-common issue-docs that's so clear about its point that it's practically pointless," writes Noel Murray at the AV Club. "Of course, ultimately What Would Jesus Buy? isn't about Van Alkemade's point of view, but about Reverend Billy's, and frankly, The Church of Stop Shopping's act ain't much."

Updates, 11/17: "What Would Jesus Buy? may be a kitschy title, but the film is anything but," writes Marcy Dermansky. "Would you buy those sneakers, that striped sweater, if you knew that children were working eighteen hour days in a factory in Indonesia to make them? The film explores the direct correlations between our compulsive consumption and the sweatshops across the world."

Dennis Harvey talks with Reverend Billy for SF360.

Update, 11/19: Michael Guillén talks with the Rev and his wife, Savitri D.

Update, 11/21: "Like global warming and other environmental problems that have been the focus of recent documentaries, the horrors and causes of what Rev Billy terms the 'Shopocalypse' are right in front of us - people living far beyond their means bombarded by hard-sell advertising and spurred on by promises of easy credit - but chronicled in documentary form they are a lot harder to ignore," writes Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times.

Update, 11/23: Emily Wilson talks with the Rev for Alternet: "'We want to collapse the distance between the product and labor,' he says. 'Our present economy is based on alienation from products.'"

Posted by dwhudson at November 16, 2007 7:58 AM