Nun of That

Another great flick from SFR and Richard Griffin and a grand cast of 10s!

A cult classic in the making for sure and no race, creed, ethnicity, religion or mob affiliation escapes ridicule in this stylistic Grindhouse/nunsploitation montage. More blood, pasta, habits, grenades, automatic weapons and young cloistered angst per inch of digital-celluloid then Tarantino could possibly imagine.

And the Jesus-meets-Busby-Berkley musical number is worth the price of admission by itself. I laughed, I cried, I choked on my rosary.

An absolute 9 out of 10. An open bar would have made it a 10.

No pun intended (or is it nun pun intended?) - but the movie is quite silly to say the least. The movie has a lot of violence and some sexual situation (also nudity but maybe not as much as some may expect/hope for). But it is the humor that will make or break the movie for you.

If you can't dig what it tries to do - well you won't be having any fun while watching the movie. Be aware of that - and if you are not easily offended (or too religious I reckon), this very low budget movie with depictions that are very likely from an atheist mind (or at least someone who has no issue to make fun of religion) can be quite the hoot (read fun ride)

Ruggedly cute director Richard Griffin is back again with his newest movie, Nun of That.

This movie had me sucking my fingertips after eating my popcorn. Frequent Griffin alum, Jason McCormick, stands out as Father Thomas with his impressive chin. While Brandon Aponte's visibly chiseled pectorals make me wish he'd carry me away in his strong arms with his dreamy piercing stare.

The dashingly handsome Robert Buco plays Officer Cappicolla, just like the tasty cured meat product of the same name, I prefer the hot version of both. I'm guilty, put the cuffs on me and take me away Officer Cappicolla.

As an added surprise, Troma legend Lloyd Kaufman appears as the Pope which is a must see for any of his fans.

Run, don't walk, to this. Make sure to butter your popcorn first.

If one comes across this title and commits to watching, there's one thing to squarely keep in mind. The only, crystal-clear intent with 'Sister Wrath,' also known as 'Nun of that,' was to tell a ridiculous, over the top story in a way that was as ridiculous and over the top as was possible. The movie immediately feels like a cheeky idea a college kid had after watching Adult Swim for many hours, and on a lark they somehow scrabbled together the cash and the contacts to pursue the production on a level one split hair above 100% amateurism. These nuns just want to have fun (alongside everyone else involved).

That's the one definite truth about this movie. In addition, I would argue that there are dashes of cleverness sprinkled throughout, some good ideas that allow some happy little neurons to fire off as we watch. Still - all the most open-minded generosity one could muster will only extend so far. It's so easy to meaningfully criticize every last element of 'Sister Wrath' that one wonders if the effort would really be worth it. Writing, direction, acting, effects, production design, art direction, and all other work behind the scenes and in front of the camera are at once overcooked and underwhelming. They build absolute inauthenticity, and so heavily pervade the feature that all 90 minutes operate at an 11 on a dial that only goes to 10; with no sense of dynamics, the result is flat and dull. Moreover, a preponderance of the dialogue and irreverent would-be humor is hopelessly juvenile and pointlessly raunchy, aiming for cheap laughs over real wit. This is to say nothing of a screenplay that plays fast, loose, and questionably with religion and culture, employs misogyny, racism, and homophobia, and makes light of child molestation in the Catholic Church. Some of this is instilled to a fraction of a degree better than abject mockery and punching down, but that's not saying much.

All this may still earn a passing grade if the writing and direction weren't so forced and contrived at large, if there were greater care put into realizing the picture even on a meager budget, or if there were more balance between the action and the comedy. Yet where bombastic action has made similar flicks a total blast (see 2010's 'Nude nuns with big guns,' which I for one loved), there's too little of it here to make a dent, and it's not as convincing where it does present. Where the humor is concerned one could at best argue that 'Sister Wrath' is trying to be a third- or fourth-tier distantly-related knock-off of 'The Hebrew Hammer,' but again - it's just not funny. That leaves very little for the curious viewer to really latch onto. To whatever extent this feature can claim to have been an earnest endeavor to be ludicrous entertainment, and to whatever far smaller extent it actually does provide some, as a whole it's simply not satisfactory.

The cast do what they can with weak material and lacking direction, but it's not much. Crew behind the scenes contribute what they can within the limits of a production that feels roughly equivalent to an Uncork'd film, but they alone can't overcome the deficiencies. 'Sister Wrath' only wants to have fun, but it's so consistently boorish and overdone - frankly, in all the wrong places - that the enjoyment isn't particularly passed onto the audience. I commend the work put into it, but above all director Richard Griffin, and co-writer Ted Marr, just didn't seem to have the skills to make this the more robust romp it could have been. I can only assume they've developed their craft in the time since, but 'Sister Wrath' just doesn't cut it. "Nun of that," indeed.

For low budget, this is a really good all-around independent film. It's strength is the high quality of acting combined with great cinematography and a very funny script. The comedic aspect of the script is much akin to a road-side sobriety test. While the jokes are directed toward many religions, the film does a good job of walking the fine line between what some may consider light humor and others find offensive.

In addition, the humor reminds me of a David Zucker film where the jokes often come at you at a relentless pace, but they are not over-the-top ridiculous or slap-stick. This endeavor proves that SFR can diversify and turn out high quality projects beyond independent horror films.