THE BOOK OF CLARENCE:
AN AMBITIOUS ALBEIT UNEVEN RELIGIOUS SATIRE!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4
TRISTAR PICTURES
LaKeith Stanfield is about to turn the Bible upside-down in The Book of Clarence
LaKeith Stanfield (Selma, Sorry to Bother You, Judas and the Black Messiah) and Jeymes Samuel (The Harder They Fall) join forces to bring one of the most unusual religious satires since Monty Python’s Life of Brian to the screen in the biblical comedy-drama, The Book of Clarence. The film is essentially a satire of biblical epics like Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments and revolves around probably the last person you’d expect to become the new Messiah.
Christian movies aren’t usually my cup of tea and I tend to avoid anything put out by Pure Flix, The Kendrick Brothers, or Sony Pictures’ Affirm Films as I often find them too manipulative and heavily focused on getting their message across over putting out a good product. There are exceptions to this like the already mentioned, Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments as well as Martin Scorsese’s Christian films, but usually modern Christian movies just make me roll my eyes whenever I see a trailer for them and often the films themselves will either live up to their lame trailers or be even worse.
That’s not the case here, I was interested when I first saw the trailer for The Book of Clarence and looked like it was going to be an irreverent Life of Brian-style satire on Christianity and topical themes from the Bible. I certainly got elements of that here and the comedic aspects of it are probably the best parts of the movie, but I also got a rather disjointed and confused film that tries to find a middle ground between religious satire and just being another religious movie.
The film follows streetwise but down-on-his-luck, Clarence (Stanfield) struggling to find a better life for his family, while fighting to free himself of debt. Captivated by the power and glory of the rising Messiah and his apostles, he risks everything to carve his own path to a divine life, and ultimately discovers that the redemptive power of belief may be his only way out.
The film also stars Omar Sy (The Intouchables, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Jurassic World) as Barabbas, Anna Diop (The Messengers, 24: Legacy, Titans) as Varinia, RJ Cyler (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Power Rangers, White Boy Rick) as Elijah, David Oyelowo (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Butler, Selma) as John the Baptist, Michael Ward (The A List, The Old Guard, Empire of Light) as Judas Iscariot, Alfre Woodard (Cross Creek, Love & Basketball, 12 Years a Slave) as Virgin Mary, Teyana Taylor (Stomp the Yard: Homecoming, Coming 2 America, White Men Can’t Jump (2023)) as Mary Magdalene, Caleb McLaughlin (Stranger Things, Concrete Cowboy, Shooting Stars) as Dirty Zeke, Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies, The Cell, Spy Game) as Amina, James McAvoy (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, X-Men franchise, Unbreakable trilogy) as Pontius Pilate, Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, The Imitation Game, Marvel Cinematic Universe) as Benjamin, Nicholas Pinnock (New World Disorder, Dark Encounter, For Life) as Jesus, Babs Olusanmokun (Black Mirror, Wrath of Man, Dune (2021)) as Asher the Torturer, Tom Glynn-Carney (Dunkirk, Tolkien, House of the Dragon) as Decimus, and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Becoming Jane, Love/Hate, Avengers 3 and 4) as Antoninus.
Overall, The Book of Clarence is easily one of the most ambitious films in recent years and its humor and handling of the subject matter will likely be very subjective amongst audiences. But the film’s unique visual style and strong performances make the movie entertaining and help give it a distinct personality.
For me, I felt the film’s tone was all over the place and honestly both the comedic and dramatic aspects are done very well. However, they often clashed with each other to the point where it’s hard to determine whether you should laugh or be emotionally impacted by what’s happening onscreen.
One moment you’ll have a cartoony moment where a light bulb appears over someone’s head when they have an idea or there’s a goofy visual gag, but then it’s followed by an intense scene where a person is getting whipped or something like that. The only way I could describe it would be if Life of Brian was also trying to be a real Christian movie half the time and it feels very uneven and inconsistent as the film goes on.
With that said, there is a lot I liked about this movie such as the production design that really makes the film seem large and epic especially the shots of Matera. When the comedy was focused, I got some laughs out of the jokes and the performances are solid especially LaKeith Stanfield’s ne’er-do-well architype for Clarence who delivers some of the funniest bits in the film.
Omar Sy is also a standout as a seemingly immortal fighter slave who accompanies Clarence on his journey and reminded me a lot of André the Giant from The Princess Bride in terms of his appearance and personality. He also has probably the most badass scene in the entire film.
I also got a kick out of the film’s visuals, besides the cartoony light bulb gag there’s also this drug sequence where Clarence and his friend are getting high and everyone’s floating in the air that’s really funny and a scene where Clarence and his love interest’s eyes flash colors as they’re speaking to each other. The soundtrack is also great with a surprisingly effective use of funk music and an energized dance number in the film, I might have to seek it out on iTunes soon.
The Book of Clarence is a mixed bag for me, but that doesn’t overshadow the elements of it that work. Had the film taken more of a Monty Python’s Life of Brian approach or something like Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks or Black Jesus, I think we could have gotten a consistently hilarious and clever satire on Christianity, as is it’s a decent one with some bumps along the way.
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