Directed By Vance Null

Starring – David A.R White, Ray Wise, Scott Baio

The Plot – Reverend David Hill (White) grapples with the crucial question: Does God still have a place in politics? Compelled to enter a congressional race after the sudden death of a favored incumbent, David faces off against state senator Peter Kane (Wise), a formidable opponent determined to push religion out of the public square and cause greater divide. With relentless scrutiny and immense challenges, David’s campaign becomes a beacon of hope and optimism for many people yearning for spiritual and moral leadership. As he navigates the treacherous waters of modern politics, David’s faith and principles are put to the ultimate test.

This film is currently not rated

God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust – Official Trailer (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

The ‘God’s Not Dead’ franchise certainly has never been my specific cup of tea, however there are some noteworthy improvements here to make one believe that they’ve adopted maturity and artistic capabilities to their approach, resulting in what is easily the best, or at least most tolerable of the franchise. For starters, the acting is much improved here, whether in the maintained veterans of the series such as White or Wise, whose fiery debates inspire the most energetically intriguing dialect of the entire film, or the addition of fresh faces like Baio and Dean Cain, who appraise legitimacy to the proceedings, regardless of their current social standings in the popularity of the public eye. Baio specifically was born to play a slimy, sleezy arrogant pissant, in that he delivers these unapologetic statements and assessments so effortlessly that they come across naturally, and though Cain is essentially only in a handful of scenes, he is the full-fledged manifestation of corporate filibusters, but without ever feeling heavy handed or forceful in his execution. However, it’s definitely White who is still the prized peach of this product, between the sincerity of his diatribes of faith, which constantly practices what he preaches, as well as the charisma and charms of his radiating personality, delivering some intentionally hilarious facial registries for his fish out of water perspective of diving into politics for the first time in his character’s life. Aside from the performances, the film’s production values are also noticeably improved upon, with idealized atmospheric lighting and even cinematography that noticeably bridges the gap with mainstream cinema. While the look of the film still garners some jarring coverage of the camera’s movements, the tone and texture of the footage renders the world every bit believably as it does tangibly, crafting a consistency to approach that at least isn’t a chore to visually interpret, as it shows its cards towards a cheaply ineffective budget. Lastly, the 96 minute run time was also greatly appreciated, especially in that the film featured very few supporting characters who weren’t involved in the primary plot of the election race. In previous films, the script would cut away from the bulk of the story’s momentum to stitch together as many outsider’s perspectives as possible, but here the direction of the storytelling remains alongside the depth of the established conflict, making it easier to remain faithfully invested, but especially free of boredom, which is certainly something I could never say about the previous installments.

NEGATIVES

As much as ‘In God We Trust’ learns from some of its previous mistakes of the ‘God’s Not Dead’ franchise, it’s still ignorant to the key ingredients that make this such an insufferable experience, particularly in the magnitude of its material, which truly can’t resist the urge to indulge in the temptation of its mission of its persecution complex. While the film is thankfully above mocking and even killing atheists, which made it an immature experience in previous installments, it’s still not over the sentiments that religion is somehow trying to be oppressed by governmental agencies in charge, when in reality the separation of church and state is something that most people believe is probably best for business. Where the script does have a valid argument is where it focuses on the sneaky tactics of smear campaigns, and particularly how most campaigns look at the voters as a means of voting for whichever candidate they hate less, but even this idea doesn’t result in anything that leverages changes to the flaws of the concepts, instead opting for conveniences in the turn around of a dead in the water campaign by a candidate who simply calls out the flaws in his opponent, because that’s never been done before. Because this film features a pastor-turned-politician, he obviously brings along his ideals to the intent of his campaign, and between using religion as a means to ignorantly solve quite literally every problem facing America, and his antagonist opponents trying to forcefully silence him, it results in the visual aide for the world’s smallest violin submitting a whining concerto that can be heard in neighboring auditoriums. If this isn’t enough, the film still knows exactly the kind of audience it’s catering towards, so the dialogue works overtime to completely obliterate nuance and naturalism to halt the storytelling directly in its tracks, all so it can speak, quite literally, to the audience in a preachy demeanor that practically begs a collective “Mmmm hmm” to the room it plays in. While the actors might as well look directly at the camera while preaching, Null thinks against it, and as a result we’re left with these strange interactions that never feel like the actors are talking naturally towards one another, in turn outlining the lack of subtlety towards its intention, which feels as smooth as a rhino smashing through a circus tent. From there, the obviousness and meandering transfers seamlessly over to another unsubtle score, with compositions lacking so much subtlety that I overheard audience members in my audience saying things like “Ohhh, he’s a bad guy”, when a character was introduced. They thought this because organs swell up whenever one of these antagonists invade the screen, with gloomy ominousness that belongs alongside a Goosebumps short story, but instead follows these characters like an unforeseen cloud that continuously hangs over them, regardless of how long we’ve experienced these characters towards understanding that they are in fact bad people. My only saving grace about this aspect is that this wasn’t a comedic-dependent movie, because then these quirky and zany tones would underline the best kind of grandpa humor that becomes the talk of family picnics everywhere, but instead the movie opts for the overtly dramatic, which it never remotely earns or attains in mirroring storytelling that refuses to put any character in overwhelming peril. In fact, if the film wasn’t so overtly predictable, then its plot could’ve definitely summoned some dramatic influx to uncertainty that its audience could’ve gotten behind, but unfortunately the film goes exactly as you would expect, which in turn means it takes very few chances to deviate from an established formula that could very well serve as the basis for whether you give it a chance or not. Finally, while some appreciation can be granted in the movie refusing to call out political parties by name, it’s clearly evident who they’re talking about on idealism and color coordination, and even in the case of casting former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, the script makes its manipulative intentions known on who the 15 million unregistered Christians should vote for. If it remained neutral by pointing out the flaws of the two party system, then the film could’ve been appreciated for its political unbiased, but it’s unfortunately saturated by the intentions of its creative brain trust, which comes across forcefully in the execution of the filmmaking, which is one of my biggest peeves towards political documentaries or fictional feature length films.

OVERALL
‘God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust’ is a noticeable improvement from previous franchise efforts that couldn’t even be enjoyed on an entertaining level, but still commits many of the same cinematic sins that keeps outsider audiences from taking them seriously. With a continued persecution complex, as well as manipulative idealism that shamelessly exploits one demographic while blaming another, the film doesn’t always practice what it so heavily preaches, leaving it to serve two masters, the likes of which are morally and ideally confrontational.

My Grade: 4/10 or D