Paradise: Faith

nick4.0

Despite not nearly as thematically provocative or visually stimulating as its predecessor, Paradise: Faith can still disarm you with its brutally honest and tonally parodic depiction of the faith crisis in Austrian suburbia.This movie offers an intriguing character study -- a woman in scientific profession who volunteers at her free time as a missionary to convert new immigrants in Austria into Christianity, while dealing with marital problems of her own. Inside her suburban house, she juggles caring for a caged cat, dealing with her overbearing wheelchair-bound husband, and sorting out her own sexual desires. We slowly yet definitely witness how her avid belief in God shifts and turns as the situation in her own life shifts and turns. It's more of a documentary-style thesis on how religion and personal traumas go hand in hand, than simply a religion-bashing farce. Director Ulrich Seidl brought out the full magic in frequent collaborator Maria Hofstaetter's fearless, restrained Oscar-worthy performance, bringing the whole project to another level.Paradise: Faith serves its purpose as another addition to Seidl's trilogy of Austrian suburban inertia, and is without a doubt the "dirty socks" of filmmaking, like Seidl's legendary countryman Michael Haneke has claimed. Highly recommended.

Anna Imhof 🌸4.0

"Jesus, you are such a handsome man. The most handsome of them all."If somebody told me that they just saw a film where a woman is taking down the cross above her bed, licking all over Jesus and then fucking him under the blanket, I'd probably roll my eyes and say: "Ugh, pretentious!" Because 'pretentious' is the worst sin a film can commit, in my view. But Seidl does it again. That scene works beautifully, it's even moving, hell, I could even relate to it (no, I've never fucked Jesus, don't be gross). Seidl just really is that good. He's too emotionally truthful for it to come across as pretentious, and the humor that all of his films are built on, no matter how hopeless they might seem, helps a lot. It's a very deep humor, the sort that is born out of tragedy, the sort that just so happens to be my favorite kind. It hides behind little moments, little things, sometimes it's in a gesture or in the way he frames a shot. I've become such a fan of the man, as well as of Maria Hofstätter who I've now seen in five of his films and who brings such humanity to these challenging roles. That woman is fearless.PS: This also features the world's grumpiest cat.

russman3.0

Well, Jesus isn't a virgin anymore