Southern Gospel

It starts out with "works salvation". This is false doctrine this is false Gospel. No one except Jesus can ever be good enough for heaven. We are all born sinners. It doesn't matter how you dress or never cuss in your life if you haven't accepted Jesus as your Savior you will never be godly enough to God to heaven bc you denied Jesus! Never ever! Jesus loves you and wants you to believe in Him. He will cleanse your sins. You don't have to be good for him. Come to Him as you are, Christ will help you love for him Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Now Sam does eventually mention grace. So that is good. Don't want to spoil the movie though.

It's a wonderful mix of joy, suspense, pain, forgiveness, hopelessness, restoration, and faith. When there seems to be no justice, that's where faith comes in. I only gave it seven stars because lead actor was a little lacking in his acting abilities and his lip-synching. It's a little low budget, but the story makes up for it and makes it a truly satisfying experience in the end. If you keep an open mind and hang in there, it's a truly encouraging story that reminds us, God loves even the least of us sinners, that he loves us more than we can imagine, and that he will never give up on us! Because there's always hope.

I was raised in a catholic family. I was baptized when I was almost three months old, I did my First Holy Communion when I was 11, but I grew up and paved my own path. Today I consider myself an atheist. My father was a Minister of the God's Word for years, and his "masses" (he wasn't a priest, if he was I wouldn't be even born) were the only ones where I felt something. But this something was not connection to God, it was pride of my dad. He loved doing that and maybe he still loves, and THAT was one of the points that strongly connected me to this film.

There are a lot of religion films that are absolutely restricted to people of that specific religion, and not all of them, but the most practitioners; and when they are aiming on people outside of that religion, it's a movie that usually tries to unnaturally convert its audience. "Southern Gospel" doesn't do that.

From the first scene, it criticizes the structure of the Church and the people who are in it. The movie clearly says "cathechesis is useless" (I wanted to use another word but it would not be appropriate here), it's something that draws you away from God more than it brings you closer. Another crucial thing here is the Holy Bible. The way it's used, interpreted in different manners by different characters, maintains the millenary debate about it open, allows the audience to interprete it freely, and for non-religious people, reinforces that "it's just a book".

In a nutshell, the religion here is, more than anything, the character's background. The story is not about religion, it's about a man trying to achieve his dreams. Max Ehrich (who reminded me of Andrew Garfield all the time) surprised me a lot, he seems to believe in every single word of what he's saying, and these compliments can be extended to J. Alphone Nicholson (who reminded me of Jonathan Majors all the time). The friendship between them seems genuine, and is the heart of this project. The rest of the cast is operant, except for Emma Myers. She is not a bad actress, but number one: Enid Sinclair, her character on "Wednesday", is too fresh in my head and she has the same posturing here; and numer two: Emma was definitely the wrong actress to that role, it was a grosser casting error than Sadie Sink in "The Whale", and what was that wig?

Also, despite the script hitting the bullseye on how it treats the audience on the religious aspect, it fails on telling its story properly, especially on the second half of the second act and the first half of the third act. Two essential informations are not well treated. I'm not talking about disrespect, it's far from the case, but about superficiality. Nicholson and Katelyn Nacon's characters deserved a bit more of attention (20 more minutes would help a lot). But I must be honest, I liked the ending. It's kind of a strange comparison, but it reminded me of "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris". It almost had the intention of being "inspirational", so it was not surprising that it took this way. And predictable is quite different from bad.

I came from this film skeptical, but even being far from the target audience (yes, even being more accessible, it's still aiming on religious people), the film conquered me, dissolved my cinism and proved that not all religious movies are bad.

There are a lot of incredible faith-based films out there. However, this movie is completely unique in it's approach to telling a Christian story that is not cookie cutter or even PG. It's refreshing to watch a faith-based film that is written in a way that's honest and doesn't shy away from the brutal realities of someone's life. The cinematography is top notch, the acting and singing is great and then knowing on top of all of that that this is a true story just makes this movie incredibly impactful for the viewer. This movie is not like the rest and is certainly worth the watch, whether you're religious or not! 10/10!

Sothern Gospel is an amazing inspiring story. This movie is extremely well written and keeps you engaged since the beginning. Never surrender the dream God has given you even in the midst of hardship and trials is one of the main topics of this movie. Furthermore, it is inspiring to see how God's plans are revealed in the main character's life and how the dream becomes a reality even though they had to overcome hard times. Additionally, the cinematography, acting and singing is amazing and beyond my expectations for an independent film. It is worth the watch even if you are not a believer or religious.

I have seen it two times already, recommended it to family and friends from different states which all agree this is a fantastic inspiring movie. Plan on seeing it a third time before it is removed from theaters.

When is the soundtrack being released? The majority of the songs are also original and created by the director, Jeffery Smith.

Never surrender the dream!