Peter Bradshaw 

Hoover Street Revival

Peter Bradshaw: I've got to confess to being baffled and disappointed by this movie, which seemed never to penetrate any particular aspect of its subject's church and community
  
  


Shot on digital video in South Central Los Angeles, this is a studiously restrained, non-invasive documentary about the ministry of Jamaican-born Reverend Noel Jones at the Greater Bethany Community church.

I've got to confess to being baffled and disappointed by this movie, which seemed never to penetrate any particular aspect of his church and community. Jones's opinions on faith, scripture, race, the LAPD... none of these were solicited, and director Sophie Fiennes made no attempt to dig deeply, or even shallowly, into the clearly fascinating character of Jones himself.

He is not interviewed, and is shown speaking in private only rarely and unrevealingly. How did he find his vocation? Has he ever suffered from doubt? How did he develop that fascinating oratorical style: sometimes whispering, sometimes singing? It's a mystery. Instead, we get extensive, but not exactly compelling, footage of his services.

The director is laudably respectful towards her subjects. But there is something fastidious, even timid, in her reluctance to investigate.

 

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