Scenes From An Empty Church
(Kevin Corrigan, Thomas Jay Ryan, Max Casella, Paul Reiser, et al / DVD / NR / 2021 / MPI Media Group)
Overview: In a locked-down NYC, two priests open their church doors to those seeking salvation during the most isolating of times.
From the commonplace to the truly metaphysical, their visitors reflect the full spectrum of personal crises of spirituality.
Throughout their encounters with the city’s sweetest, wildest and weirdest, the two priests learn the importance of connection, empathy and open-mindedness.
Sometimes a little faith is all you need to make it through the bad times.
DVD Verdict: The NYC Church has two priests: Fathers Andrew and Father James. When Father Andrew, by chance meets up with a friend, Paul (Max Casella) on the street, he brings him into the Church for solace.
And after a gently rocky beginning to the underlying who he is and what he is there for by both priests, over supper one night Paul suggests that their empty church, even in the midst of a Pandemic, and for the most part going against not only the laws of the city, but the overall safety aspects of the Church, not only go mask-less, but opens up to the public once again.
In what can only be described as one of the films of the past decade, in my humble opinion, the quietly beautiful, stealthily magnificent, and proudly aware Scenes From An Empty Church immaculately captures the fears, trials and tribulations that we all had back a year ago, let alone still harbor today.
An inspiring story about the Soul vs. the Heart vs. the Mind, this drama/comedy showcases just perfectly those inner turmoil’s that we have all suffered from for the past 18 months, whilst allowing the milk of human kindness to lovingly seep through.
The two priests take a gamble, one that will either see them start to rise again, as a sanctuary within a Pandemic-ridden city, or be forced back down, under the oppressively-governed thumb of the officials from the very same city.
Thus, Scenes From An Empty Church is ebbed with the love, forgiveness and overall spirit of can-do within all its human ways and as much as there is no bold-lettered underlying message to be found, there is definitely a sense of confusion, unattachment and perhaps even a worldly loss of faith that is fast becoming prevalent.
Ergo, the humor within this drama is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most eloquently sewn and layered, with such a hard-hitting social commentary that it softens the landing rather nicely. Life must go on, for everybody, and this film shows you where that acorn of hope can be sewn from. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:
Commentary with Writer/Director Onur Tukel
Behind the Scenes
Deleted Scenes
Music Video
Camera Test
Empty City - Short Film
Trailer
Official Movie Trailer
Amazon Purchase Links
www.MPImedia.com