Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway: NZIFF Review

It's obvious that Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway is going to be in some people's wheelhouses a lot more than others.

Miguel Llansó's nutty film is really a mashing of various genres and for some, a test in patience.

Riffing kitsch with Commodore 64 graphics, stop motion with martial arts, and 70s capers with sleaze, the loose story concerns CIA Agents DT Gagano (on his last job) and Palmer Eldritch. 

Both are guinea pigs in a top-secret experiment where they’ll go into a coma to fight a Soviet computer virus named Stalin in a virtual reality world. Only that world sees them wearing paper masks in a kind of low-rent Hallowe'en style showdown.

Granted, there's creativity rippling through Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway, but to be honest, you need to be at least three beers deep or deeply in love with film-making to fully appreciate what's transpiring here.

There's no doubting Llanso's gonzo style recalls portions of Town Called Panic's creativity, and the head-trippery on show here is something that really does need to be embraced before it induces a migraine.

Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway won't be for everyone, and that's fine. It could only be part of The Incredibly strange section of the programme - so embrace its weirdness for what it is.