The Good Catholic (2017)

Thanks for the memories!

Memorable, crazy movie

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This movie is just so great the acting is pristine and the plot is interesting it's almost a thrilling drama YES

A 4-actor film and religious plot has necessarily to communicate much and good to be acceptable. In this case we have a lot of confusion. It is very difficult to find God from the safety and protection of a religious community. God can be found in the difficulty, need and suffering, rarely taking part of a congregation whose way of life is living comfortably. Here we have 4 characters and 4 situations the first one, the superior that believe himself infallible and with right to humiliate. Second; the priest who apparently is normal and flexible but who punishes and make kneeling to one boy who is wrong in singing. Third:The smart protagonist who tries but does not find God and Fourth, the girl who gets tired of not finding something worthwhile in this life, sleeps in a coffin and its motto is "See Jane Die". (Possibly, she is the only one who has God closer). The film is sometimes lacking in rhythm and is only valid for those who endure movies with religious theme. Nothing new.

THE GOOD CATHOLIC finds a decent young man trying to follow a path set out for him by his father, that of a Catholic priest. We can sense from the first scene his restlessness in the confines of this dogma-bound and tightly constricted role. He yearns for meaning in life and thought to satisfy that yearning in the priesthood but finds himself embracing phantoms until an edgy and clever young woman enters his life. She claims to be dying but touches him with her spark of individuality and suddenly he understands his life can be more than a period of long waiting for the end, more than fear of hell and hope of heaven. The movie evokes very powerfully the deep yearning of youth for a lifetime story of love and meaning, for experiencing something intense and alive before it's too late, the awful fear that youth has that it will never be young.

No matter what you might think this is about from the title, you're wrong. IOW, don't not see the film because of it. It's neither a polemic mocking religious faith, nor does it say anything about religion except maybe why don't we all just sit down and start over. All four primary characters are superbly cast, including Danny Glover who is about 3 steps above anything I've ever seen him in before. The subject matter is handled respectfully, albeit with liberal amounts of humor which zeros in on the fact that most religions take themselves way to seriously--which the production company apparently takes to heart, naming itself Pigasus (sic) Pictures.This is about as perfect as you can expect an independent film to be. It's only flaw is there being too much lipstick on Daniel--which is so obvious, I wondered if they just wanted to give the audience something to criticize. Needless to say, there's no actual action for the action junkies, but the dialogue and the subject matter are outstanding--and at times, profound. This is my second "10" of the year, (18th all time), the first being only a week ago, so I was wondering if coming out of the summer movie drought has something to do with it.It' doesn't'.