Metroscope
The Spin
The Reason for the Season? Here’s an unusual way to put the Christ back in Christmas — with Mangus! It’s ostensibly the tale of a young man who is desperately committed to play Jesus in his community production of “Jesus Christ Spectacular!” (a low-rent rip-off of “Jesus Christ Superstar”) as did his father and grandfather before him. But - following in the tradition of John Waters (who actually makes a brief appearance in the film), it’s really just a unfolding series of events — each more bizarre and unexpected than the last. With impish Leslie Jordan playing the show’s director, the amazing Jennifer Coolidge deadpanning as Mangus’s mother and Heather Matazzaro as Mangus’ half sister (whose character seems to have been named “Jessica Simpson” for entirely comedic purposes), the moral to this story may just be that some stories are better left amoral.
