The best satires are so enduringly effective because they highlight the absurdities of things they actually love. At their cores, Blazing Saddles celebrated the Wild West and the need for unlikely heroes while Tropic Thunder embraced the experience of seeing epic movies on the big screen. Religious satires, however, rarely seem to possess that same comedic integrity because, often, at their core, those movies don’t actually champion the idea of faith. Bad Counselors, the new comedy directed by Chris Dowling, is a rare success in the world of religious satire because it takes joy in pointing out the human-added weirdness of modern religion while underscoring the importance of true faith. 

Bad Counselors feels like a classic 80’s comedy. It’s a fish-out-of-water story of mischievous but charming kids who get into trouble and try to scheme their way out of it while learning life lessons in the process. A hallmark of those great 80’s comedies was an iconic needle-drop scene that anchored the rest of the movie. Bad Counselors trades out Peter Gabriel blaring from a boombox for a worship leader singing at a campfire. There are other moments of real pathos scattered throughout the movie, including a crushing reaction to a tape measure during a dance number.

As a disclaimer, I was a 90’s kid who grew up going to Baptist church camp, so it’s entirely possible I thought this movie was funnier than other people just because every camp character in the movie was someone I could’ve put a real name to back in my church camp days. From the love-starved camp counselors to the bored/repressed/goth/jock campers, every single one of these characters was a real kid I knew. I say all that to say, it’s rare when a movie nails the vibe so well that the only people who seem like they’re actors are the leads(because they’re actually pretending to be someone they aren’t in the movie).

I loved Bad Counselors. It was funny, it lampooned the things in church that deserve it, and it hit the nostalgia button for me. My 3, 6, and 9 year old kids also saw it with me and my wife and they cracked up the whole time too. They haven’t been to church camp. They wouldn’t be able to differentiate between the worship at our church and The Righteous Gemstones, so none of the satire was in play…it was just an entertaining, funny movie. And, at the end of the day, that’s all a moviegoer wants, right? And, if the viewer is entertained and open to even a seed of an idea that the director thinks matters, then that’s a great movie.

peace,

daniel