Jesus is King Short Film Review
Some spoilers follow. If you wanted to go into the short film Jesus is King blindly, now’s your chance to bail. TL;DR: Surprisingly refreshing.
When viewing a film “by Kanye West,” I would normally expect a shocking, enticing music video, a la “Famous” or the short My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy film, Runaway. When driving to the theater, I heard the newly released Kanye West album also titled Jesus is King in preparation and expected it to be a long, extended music video of said music. All I knew going into the theater was that the film Jesus is King was a somewhat experimental documentary with a runtime of 38 minutes. I had also heard around the internet that the doc wasn’t for everybody.Much to my surprise, the short film Jesus is King broke all the expectations I had. Director Nick Knight’s use of the circle as a motif throughout was intriguing as a way of presenting the Sunday Service choir, nature, and Kanye West himself. More surprising still is that the Sunday Service choir, and not Kanye West, dominated the screen time. While the album Jesus is King predominantly features performances from Kanye West (obviously, it’s a Kanye West album) with small appearances from the Sunday Service choir, it feels like the situation has flipped in the slightly longer short film despite being a film "by Kanye West."What surprised me the most was the mixing in IMAX for the choral recordings. The heavy use of panning throughout elevated the performances beyond what one could hear in stereo. The vocals sent chills through my body, honestly. As someone with choral experience, hearing the gospel choir with this detailed of a sound system and with such interesting sonic choices left me dumbfounded. I should also mention that the Sunday Service choir itself, as a character in this documentary, was the most dynamic element. They conveyed a range of emotion including joy, sadness, and most of all, strength in their faith through song.Catch Jesus is King in all its glory, this week only in select theaters.