“Jesus comes from Bavaria!” – now try saying that out loud without laughing, because we certainly couldn’t after watching ‘Holy Spirit’. Mike Baran’s feature film was a surprise for us all the more so after reading the movie description we wouldn’t have thought to get a product as nice as the whisky it is advertising (inside joke, you have to see the movie to get it…so count this as a reason!). But of course, everything blows when a murder is discovered, and they come to a question that many wouldn’t ever think of: “Is Jesus a serial killer?”
What we liked the most in this movie was the perfect clean-cut editing – there are some certain pseudo-erotic scenes that are perfectly masked with images that induce the idea of what it is happening without spoiling the surprise and transforming this movie into a straightforward porn. The score and the sound editing are also worth praising, taking in consideration the length of the movie, and how well it is dosed to make every scene stand out. The time-lapse scenes are something we usually enjoy seeing in feature films, but not all the time they are properly used for the reason that sometimes, especially young directors, insert time-lapse scenes only to gain some extra minutes, or to show that they know how to use this technique. Fortunately, in Mike Baran’s project they were used perfectly and at the right time.
Another thing that caught our attention in ‘Holy Spirit’ was the dialogue. We weren’t expecting so many biblical references and easter-eggs, but as they appeared, we were excited to see them, and more than that, we were excited to get them. The usage of religious vocabulary, the reinterpretation of biblical matters such as the resurrection of Lazarus might seem offensive to some people, however Mike Baran managed to deliver them all with good humor. The role of Jesus / Gustl Wanninger (played by Tom Schuster) is a hard role, with many implications and controversies, but Schuster plays it impeccably, as a master he is.
What can we say more apart from recommending ‘Holy Spirit’ to anyone out there wanting to watch a cool movie that’s really different from many you’ve seen recently? It has the right amount of craziness, blood, violence, erotica, and last but not least humor to please even the pickiest group of film lovers. On top of all that, though, it has whisky! Cheers!
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