Mockumentaries are not to everyone's taste, granted. Not everyone gets sarcasm or the context of humour in the medium itself (the 'serious documenatary'), and if they do, don't like it as they think it's mean or somehow cruel.

Not me.

I love it. Going back to Monty Python's works like "Life of Brian",  "This is Spinal Tap", "American Movie", "Mail Order Bride," "Best in Show" etc., the genre has produced some gut-clutchingly funny work. Add Chris Hansen's low-budget "The Proper Care and Feeding of American Messiah"(TPCAFOAAM) to the list. Co-written with D.M. Lovic, a writer educated at a Bible-based University, "TPCAFOAAM" is the story of Brian (Dustin Olson), a married, "balded" (i.e. monk's fringe of hair left) fellow who claims to be a Local Messiah for his town and a 100-mile radius area. He and his wife live with his savant-like brother Aaron ( Joseph Frost) and long-suffering sister Miriam (Ellen Dolan) All do an outstanding job in their roles, especially Dolan who photographs well and has real emotional depth.

Brian is not a likable Messiah. He doesn't  work and complains about the public's misconceptions of what a Messiah actually is. Giving out antacid seems to be his service to his followers (admittedly only his brother and sister) and providing cable TV for his slightly-off wife.(Could she be any other way?) Brian needs to find his purpose and to do that he needs to rasie money for a Messiah Rally at the local civic center.

There's the Miracle of the Grapes, a Baptism, random attempts at healings on the street, and a funny episode with Tony Hale of the short-lived but brilliant Fox Television comedy "Arrested Development." The target here is folks who might delusionally take Christinanity to far and on that level the film succeeds for me. (Disclosure: I was raised a Fundamentalist Christian and have since ran far from it, thank Jesus) Some of the folks I viewed the DVD with picked up on this and some did not, choosing instead to focus on the "wackiness" of Brian and his brother.

Several moments made me laugh out loud. "We got the same thing going on here!" or "The children will Suffer" were very funny but to really work brilliantly, I feel more real interaction with Brian and his wife for instance, would have given more emotional punch. Olson almost pulls this off, but to be fair, he has a hard job in terms of the way his character is fleshed out. Perhaps Hansen was saying that some folks never, or are incapable of, change? They just keep on being crazy come what may? Dolan as Miriam provides the emotional payoff. When she decides to leave her brothers for California, she has a moment with Brian in the bus station that just played brilliantly.

Hansen and Team did a fine job on the low-budgeted "TPCAFOAAM" and it bodes well for their future projects. Tech-wise the film looks good. Hansen said they were working on another sound mix but I deferred to my Sound Engineer who said "it was pretty damn well recorded and mixed." You be the judge. Of the 7 folks that viewed the film, 5 gave it high marks and 2 said it went on abit to long. I was of the former opinion. Go here to find out info on purchasing the film and for general info on the Cast and Crew- reviewed by Jerry Brewington 4/25/06