Brand new testament review

This irreverent, idea-filled satire asks what if everything the Bible says is wrong, and God's daughter came down to earth to set the record straight. By Peter Debruge. Chief Film Critic.

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Brand new testament review

Sign In. The Brand New Testament Hide Spoilers. Ladies, this one is for you. Some of you may have suspected it all along, but this film confirms God is a chauvinist pig well, the clues were all there, come to think of it. Luckily - but unbeknownst to most - God also has a daughter, and she's had enough of her mean-spirited, bad-tempered Father and is about to teach Him a lesson. With the help of her brother yes, THAT brother and a somewhat unorthodox band of newly appointed disciples, she's determined to make her own mark on the universe. Needless to say, God's having none of it and tries to do everything in His - considerable - power to stop His rebellious daughter from undoing everything He's worked so hard for. This hilarious satire is a firework of inspired ideas and just a blast from start to finish. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves intelligent, absurdist comedy in the vein of 'Life of Brian' or 'South Park' and doesn't get easily offended. In case you're interested in more underrated masterpieces, here's a list with some of my favorites: imdb.

Gone is the traditional, vaguely Zeus-like notion of God as an old man with white beard and flowing robes.

Catherine Deneuve romancing a gorilla. Is pairing the French screen goddess with the big hairy guy from the zoo a funny conceit? That depends on your sense of humor. So presumably some folks find it screamingly funny. All of which underscores the truism that humor is largely subjective.

The most powerful figure in the world is a miserable old bastard who manifests a startling contempt for humanity and an utter lack of moral qualifications and who spends each day dispensing tyranny and abuse with a few ill-advised keystrokes. In the grand satirical tradition of Monty Python and Kevin Smith before him, Van Dormael takes gleeful yet disarmingly genial aim at the God of the Judeo-Christian universe — reimagined here as an angry, foul-mouthed schlub in flannel pajamas and played with an unflattering sneer by Benoit Poelvoorde. Knowledge really is power, and in this case, it provokes the whole gamut of human reactions, from liberation to despair to stupefied disbelief. A genial mind-bender with an imaginative eye for both human eccentricity and arrestingly strange production design, Van Dormael particularly likes to explore the riddle of parallel identities, of roads not taken and experiences not pursued. But within its more modest proportions, it is no less predicated on the question of whether human beings, given the right nudge, might be willing to consider an alternate narrative. The movie explores this notion by sending Ea on her own world-saving mission, which will require her to track down six willing apostles of her own. As they make their way through Brussels, they must grapple with the realities of what seemingly ordinary people might be driven to do under extraordinary circumstances. Would men at war suddenly lay down their arms? Would a young boy dream of living as a girl for a change?

Brand new testament review

Jaco Van Dormael has never lacked for inspired invention, but sustaining audience interest in the worlds he creates has not always proved so easy. After such a strong set-up, sustaining the story momentum and comic energy was always going to be a tough ask, and the pacing does inevitably sag as Ea hooks up with a homeless bum Marco Lorenzini , and then recruits six more apostles to contribute fresh chapters for the titular Bible update. Some of these characters — which include a sex addict, a killer and a sickly boy — register more vividly than others, but best of all is the haute-bourgeois lady Catherine Deneuve who, ignored by her businessman husband and with only five years left on her clock, enjoys an assignation with a pretty young rentboy and then finds a more enduring romantic pairing with the gorilla she purchases from a local circus. Deneuve, it is now abundantly clear, really is game for anything. Laughs reliably return every time the film cuts to the travails of God, who follows Ea through the portal which his browbeaten wife immediately seals behind him , and is mistaken for a paperless illegal immigrant. His selfish nature repels anyone who tries to help, and the indignities pile up. A ratty-faced Poelvoorde is excellent in the role, brilliantly capturing the exasperation of a man who is entirely to blame for his own misfortune. The story wraps up satisfyingly with a female-positive takeaway that gives the naturally sympathetic Moreau some nice scenes of her own. David Duchovny directs and stars in this period drama about fathers, sons and the healing power of baseball. Screen International is the essential resource for the international film industry.

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The tongue-in-cheek bits of wisdom filling in the stories of the apostles are perfect. God spends his day intentionally making people miserable, tapping out rules on his his outdated DOS computer and fiddling with his train set. View All Details. In fact, there's good acting throughout - even Catherine Deneuve expands her range beyond the standard 'slightly harassed' facial expression with which she coasts through many of her films. Remember, there is a post credit scene, which opens the door for a possible sequel, but I don't think that'll happen. This is one of those all-or-nothing movies, if you like it you'll love it, if you don't like it you'll loathe it. It's a question we've all asked ourselves at one stage or another: what if God were Belgian? Then Ea escapes the apartment and everything goes wrong. Players Sheila O'Malley. The acting is good, though some of the themes will rather annoy than offend people. Funding and industry. My assessment of this film is mixed: it contains some highly creative film making, which is a joy to watch, but too frequently the creativity spins out of control. Kind of a missed opportunity and falls into a simplicity. Some accuse it of trying to impress by the quasi-philosophical depth, but I disagree with that. Then this jerk is writing laws: Law no.

Catherine Deneuve romancing a gorilla.

So, Ea leaves to find her apostles, but not before she gains access to her father's computer and sends everyone in the world, their day of death; and then she locked the computer so her father could not access it again. Van Dormael, who co-wrote the script with Thomas Gunzig, wields a deft direction. Expand the sub menu Music. The dialogues are witty and hilarious at the same time. That depends on your sense of humor. Cannes midway roundup. One could envisage his gleefully, gently blasphemous conceit — God as a capricious boor, undone by his own feckless cruelty, his rebellious daughter Ea and a human race forced to reckon with its mortality — played as apocalyptic Bergmanesque tragedy or ferocious takedown of sacred cows. He is bored with the humans he has created so he sits around all day making new rules like "The other line will always move faster than the one you are in" or "as soon as you get in the tub the phone will ring" while also setting up disasters for them. After all, he appeared as a George Burns impersonator in that movie about himself back in , a wonderful story actually that everyone should take a look at. Ea just picks six random people to be her apostles, and meets each one of them, one after another, telling them the same story about her mean dad and her brand new testament. The movie is crazily imaginative, as Ea cultivates a succession of oddballs, changing their lives in strange ways. A complicated topic, because loopholes are inevitable, but the writer and director did not care much about that and narrated the tale what they just wanted to tell.