Last week, internationally renowned bigot Richard Dawkins tweeted a grotesque insult aimed at America’s Bible Belt.

It’s hardly an unexpected act from the chief crusader for “new atheism”, if a little cheaper than usual. White fundies have always been an easy target for the lazily prejudiced. In film, depictions of small town folk tend to hew towards ridicule, and that’s partly why Jesus Town USA, entertaining as it is, invites an uneasy feeling.

The set-up is gold. For almost 90 years, Oklahoma’s Holy City of the Witchitas has hosted an Easter passion play, The Prince of Peace, in an expansive outdoor recreation of the Holy Land. At its most popular, a staggering 200,000 people came to watch the spectacle, which, as you can probably imagine, boasts the cornpone charm (or not) of amateur theatre or a William “One Shot” Beaudine movie (Zing!)

When filmmakers Julian T. Pinder and Billie Mintz visit the Holy City, townspeople in nearby Lawton are in the midst of casting likeable manchild Zack as their newest Jesus. Zack’s delighted, even though he’s a recently converted Buddhist; a painful secret that drives the professional paperboy and Sonic the Hedgehog obsessive to drown his sorrows in wine coolers.

Zack seeks the counsel of friends, relatives and elders. “Would you want somebody playing Chuck Norris in a movie that doesn’t have any knowledge of who Chuck Norris is?” asks one confidante. Ha ha, what a hick. 

Jesus Town USA oversells its quirkiness in search of some solid ground between mockery, empathy, and the need to amuse sophisticated big city people like you and me. The forced whimsy of its soundtrack doesn’t necessarily help, and neither do scenes that feel scripted. Filmmakers Pinder and Mintz have insisted that they treated these "lovely people" with the requisite respect, but they probably could have been a little more Christ-like in their approach. 

Jesus Town USA screens at the Vancity Theatre on Sunday (June 14) at 8 P.M.