''What Would Jesus Buy?'' is a 2007

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

produced by

Morgan Spurlock Morgan Valentine Spurlock (born November 7, 1970) is an American documentary filmmaker, humorist, television producer, screenwriter and playwright. Spurlock's films include '' Super Size Me'' (2004), '' Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?'' ( ...

and directed by Rob VanAlkemade. The title is a take-off on the phrase, "

what would Jesus do? The phrase "What would Jesus do?", often abbreviated to WWJD, became popular particularly in the United States in the early 1900s after the widely read book by Charles Sheldon entitled, '' In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do''. The phrase had a r ...

". The film debuted on the festival circuit on March 11, 2007, at the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. It went into general U.S. release on November 16, 2007. The film follows the exploits of the satirical group

Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping is a radical performance community based in New York City. The Stop Shopping Choir is accompanied by a comic preacher, Reverend Billy, portrayed by performer William (Billy) Talen. The philosophy of ...

. Although founded as a performance collective rather than an actual religious organization, members of the group express spiritual viewpoints against excessive consumerism and materialism, particularly in the context of

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

. The aforementioned Reverend Billy, played by social activist Bill Talen, is intended by its non-Christian performer not as

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

but as a living example of past radical preachers.

Synopsis

The film focuses on the issues of the commercialization of Christmas, materialism, the over-consumption in American culture,

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...

, and the business practices of large corporations, as well as their economic and cultural effects on American society, as seen through the prism of activist and performance artist Bill Talen, who goes by the alias of " Reverend Billy", and his troupe of activists, whose

street theater Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves, college or university ...

performances take the form of a church

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

called "The Church of Stop Shopping", that sings anti-shopping and anti-corporate songs. The film follows Billy and his choir as they take a cross-country trip in the month prior to Christmas 2005, and spread their message against what they perceive as the

evil Evil, in a general sense, is defined as the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, although in everyday usage it is often more narrowly used to talk about profound wickedness and against common good. It is general ...

s of patronizing the retail outlets of several different large corporate chains.

Crew

The film was produced by

, with cinematography by Alan Deutsch, Daniel Marracino, Martin Palafox, Alex Stikich and Rob VanAlkemade. The film was edited by Gavin Coleman and Stela Georgieva.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews. On the review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 56%, based on 57 reviews, and an average rating of 5.96/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''WWJB'' is an eye opening doc about consumerism that manages to be both funny and informative." The film has a score of 60 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * * * * {{Morgan Spurlock 2007 films American documentary films Documentary films about consumerism Documentary films about Christianity in the United States 2007 documentary films Criticism of the commercialization of Christmas 2000s Christmas films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films

Synopsis

Crew

Reception

See also

References

External links