Indy Christian Review is the brainchild of indie producer/director Zack Lawrence… who will now cease referring to himself in the third person.
In late 2010, I came to realize that there was an appalling lack of Christian movie review websites that gave any notice to the works of the indie Christian filmmaker. Oh sure, there were plenty of sites that reviewed the latest Hollywood schlockbuster from a Christian perspective, but no one was fighting for the little guy.
As one such “little guy” (i.e. a maker of indie faith-based films), I felt that someone needed to finally stand up and shout to the internet, “HEY! While you’re over there whining about how immoral Hollywood is (while standing in line for the matinee), there are Christians making good movies over here! LISTEN UP!”
In January of 2011, I took it upon myself to be that person.
When I’m not working on my own productions, I’ll take a look at whatever indie Christian movie I can get my hands on, and look for the good, the bad, and the facepalm-worthy. If it’s worth watching, I’ll let you know.
But what about the bad ones, you ask?
Well…
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. –Ephesians 4:29
What’s that, you say? Are you accusing me of being an overly-positive, never-condemning, easy to please, namby-pamby reviewer? I hope not, because then I’d have to sick Uncle Bob on you.
Here’s the way I see it. There are hundreds of indie Christian films out there. By default, every one of them is doomed to obscurity, unless the producer manages to win the battle to scrape together an audience that’s larger than their immediate friends and family. They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, so if I think a movie is horrible and should never see the light of day (and I’ve seen plenty of those), then why would I want to bring it any attention?
So in the interest of being an edifier, I’ve decided to focus my energies on talking about the movies that I think are worth all the attention they can get. That said, I won’t pull punches on any problems I see with the story, or the acting, or the editing, or whatever. After all, if Christian films are going to overcome all the negative stereotypes stacked against them, we have to know what and how to improve, right?
My goal for Indy Christian Review is for it to be the place people go for reviews that are just as entertaining as the movies themselves.
