Watch Jesus Henry Christ For Free

Strong and Moving!

People are voting emotionally.

Absolutely Brilliant!

Blistering performances.

When you watch as many independent films as I do, you know you're going to come across a few weird ones. Jesus Henry Christ may take the cake though, as it was really out there. 10 year old Henry Herman (Jason Spevack) is a genius, with one of the highest IQ's ever recorded. This genius was actually a test tube baby, and his lifelong goal has been to find out where his genius comes from. It's certainly not from the Herman family, which is the definition of a dysfunctional family, so whoever it is, has to better than them. Henry will come to discover that his father is a college professor, who wrote a book about how to condition your children to be gay from birth. He has a sister too, who thanks to her father, is the laughing stock of her whole school. When the two halves of Henry come together, hilarity ensues in this screwball comedy. Young Jason Spevack stars, and while he's just a kid, his character was super annoying. If you hate people who think they are smarter than everyone, try watching a kid who knows he's smarter than everyone. Thankfully, there is more to the movie then the musings and rambles of young Henry. His Grandfather and half-sister are both hilarious, and easily are the best part of the movie. Unfortunately, they don't have huge roles, and the film is left with simply moments of hilarity. Overall, Jesus Henry Christ is a strange film, with a few funny moments, but generally it's pretty slow and uninteresting. Toni Collette of Sixth Sense fame is the only person of recognition in this cast, but her role was so insignificant, that she doesn't do much to help an otherwise young and inexperienced cast. While it's not a bad film, Jesus Henry Christ isn't great either. It has it's moments and the story is somewhat interesting, but unless the storyline interests you, I would go ahead and skip this one.

I excepted a lot from this small indie flick and thank you! for fulfilling those expectations. The plot absolutely intriguing summarizes life of four socially indifferent individuals, the ten year old unreal genius, curious and longing for his biological father. His mother, a femininely empowered social activist with history of freak family tragedies coincidently at age of ten resulting in deaths and loss of her mother and four brothers leaving her curiously with the job of bringing up her father.The pressure of social acceptance lead the boy to the scholar cum author of controversial book on research of his own daughters' sexuality named "Born Gay Or Made That Way".And his daughter riding the wreck of her childhood due to the unintended mistakes of her father. Their lives collide in course of verification of their paternal origin and with each of them succumbing to their present contempt.The scarce but amazing cast comprises of brilliantly played mother Toni Collette. The very mature ten year old Jason Spevack. The very uncertain and nervous Michael Sheen and apathetic daughter Samantha Weinstein.Cinematography although not unique was versatile and added pace and character to the plot.The frames of flying post-its and jovial dance of Michel Seen in rumbling rain were artistically note worthy.The direction(Dennis Lee) absolutely applaud-able with his only second major film ensured the humor in tragedy and tears in laughter.Bravely connecting scenarios with absurd coincidences surprisingly to extravagant results. All in all an indie at its best and humorous none the less.

I have to say I was impressed, pleasantly by this indie production. I did chance upon the movie and I did not expect much from the story line. I thought it would be some kind of children offering and I was prepared to sample and leave it. However I found a little gem of a film. It is funny, well acted and briskly paced. The story of the little genius is more incidental than central to the theme. I particularly like the black humour that one wouldn't expect associated with with child actors. All in all it shows that mega budget are not needed to produce an intelligent, humorous and entertaining production. Well done Dennis Lee. I will watch out for this director/writer.

The second film of Singapore Night, Jesus Christ Henry got into the lineup because of Singaporean Sukee Chew's involvement being one of three producers of the film, an indie production that made its World Premiere in the Tribeca Film Festival a few weeks ago, which drew quite a mixed response with comments that it had tried to hard. Written and directed by Korean American Dennis Lee based upon his short film back in 2003, I thought this movie garnered reactions that it didn't quite deserve for trying too hard, being crafted in the same hyperactive mold such as quirky comedies that have been seen around the region such as Citizen Dog and true blue Singaporean film 18 Grams of Love even.There are a number of focus shifts in the film that tangent off its intended protagonist Henry James Herman (Jason Spevack), a petri-dish baby conceived through in-vitro fertilization technique opted by his feminist mom Patricia Herman (Toni Collette), turning out to be the unintentional genius with a videographic memory, retaining every single little detail that he's experienced since conception. Jason Spevack would probably be yet another child actor to look out for since Freddie Highmore grew up, and this film will serve as his showreel if not for being upstaged by the other cast members given the narrative shifts that put the spotlight on them.Specifically I thought the film devoted a lot more time (not that I'm complaining) to the Patricia character, beginning with a rather lengthy introduction to the Herman family and the demise of each and every individual character beginning with Patricia's mother right down to her brothers, each in a rather comical manner that you'll likely be surprised at its rather nonchalant manner in which to bump them off, with black comedy by the bucket loads of course. And this set the course of the film to be rather gag filled in almost every scene put on screen, that for some it may be tiring and trying since it could have felt like a water torture treatment being force fed with in-your-face comedic moments. I appreciated what it had tried to do, but opinions on humour especially, and how to deliver it, will obviously be polarized.Yes like a typical comedic indie film, this one is filled with its fair share of quirky characters. Outside of the mother-son Hermans, and Patricia's father Stan (Frank Moore) who forms a very strong bond with his grandson Henry, the story also goes out to another dysfunctional father-daughter pair when Henry embarks on a mission to discover his biological father. This brings Michael Sheen into the fray as Dr Slavkin O'Hara, a professor whose book "Born Gay or Made That Way?" becomes a living hell for his daughter Audrey (Samantha Weinstein) when she is the subject of his book, and becomes the constant taunt of her schoolmates.Story-wise, the coming together of these two families in a sort of identity-crisis form the bulk of the situational comedy they find themselves in, but the pairing of both Weinstein and Spaveck together moved the story forward with both putting in strong performances and holding their own against two very powerful thespians in Sheen and Collette, although Weinstein probably upstaged Spaveck a little with her portrayal as the extremely cynical and sarcastic little girl quite unfazed by her tormentors. Again there are plenty of laugh out loud wicked moments that you will probably wonder if you're laughing at the film, or with it especially in its darker moments that could be quite unsettling.Production values are quite spiffy given the big name executive producer behind this film, though Dennis Lee and Sukee Chew were quite tight lipped on how much this film actually cost since it looked like a multi-million dollar movie. If you're still game for quirkiness in all characters of your indie films, then Jesus Henry Christ will still be your cup of tea if you see beyond, or tolerate some eyebrow raising moments with its less than friendly jibes against lesbians/feminists as well as a white man who thinks he's black, otherwise those jaded will find fault with almost every frame of the film in trying too hard with wild absurdity in characters. Split down the middle, depending on your mood and attitude.