Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX
Poland’s Catholic population is approximately 88%; Catholicism informs their lives, behavior, decision-making, asserting its supremacy, domination, channeling its tenets in all avenues of the individual’s existence. Polish director Jan Komasa and writer Mateusz Pacewicz with searing, intense uniqueness address the bifurcation of the man and the priest: the man, “Daniel” (outrageously beautiful Bartosz Bielenia) a juvenile delinquent with a bent toward the priesthood, forbidden because of his punitive status; sent to a tiny village, as a menial laborer, Daniel masks his pot-smoking, licentious behavior and dons the disguise of a parish priest. The duality, complexity of corporeal vs ethereal, percolates at the epicenter of this remarkable film; when Daniel, clothed in priestly vestments, is Christ’s consigliere, his pious sermons resonate with practicality, inspiration, humaneness, humility; Bielenia’s performance is immaculate, profound, blessed with an aesthetic combination of saintliness and sexuality; palatable, riveting are the torturous verdicts he must render as the “Body of Christ” camouflaged in man’s fallibility.
“Corpus Christi’s”, not celebrating, nor shunning Catholicism, exposes the tribulation, complexity of one faulty individual, having the gift, prescience to hear and listen to a higher power.
FOUR STARS!!!!
Peneflix
