DVD review: Holiday documentary asks ‘What Would Jesus Buy?’
“What Would Jesus Buy?” is the kind of documentary that should give you very uncomfortable pause as you’re standing in line to purchase the DVD at the big-box electronics store. A lively showcase for the bombastic Reverend Billy (a.k.a. Bill Talen) and the Church of Stop Shopping, the film depicts a fervor in the motley congregation that makes you wonder if you could ever muster such resolve to avoid the rabid consumerism that defines the American Christmas.
As the reverend and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir cross America confronting materialism at big-box stores and shopping centers all along the way, you might laugh at the antics, but you can’t avoid a queasy feeling of being part of the problem.
Reverend Billy, resplendent in white suit and blond pompadour, doesn’t shop – much. He and his band are in the business of trying to turn the nation away from its headlong consumer tumble into the holiday season, when Americans traditionally give family and friends a lot of stuff and max out their credit cards in the process.
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