‘Divine’ comedy with flaws

Van Elder’s ragged but likable comedy “Divine Intervention” doesn’t concern the struggle between sacred and profane so much as that between different kinds of sacred. As the Rev. Matthews (James Avery), the pastor of a Baptist congregation, convalesces, his place is taken by “acting shepherd” Robert Gibbs (Wesley Jonathan), whose flashy style brings in new converts but makes the old guard bristle.

With his broad smile and slick patter, Jonathan is more convincing as a man about town than a man of the cloth, especially once he sets his sights on his predecessor’s agnostic daughter, Divine (Jazsmin Lewis). Deacon Gibbs does his best to convince her overprotective dad that he’s only after spiritual communion, but he seems more concerned with getting her into his bed than into the pews.

Elder shoots the neighborhoods of South Los Angeles with obvious affection and populates them with a cast of broadly drawn characters, from a villainous city councilman (Las Alonzo) to a pair of pot-smoking parishioners (Cynda Williams and Luenell, best known as Borat’s girlfriend).

But Elder lingers on subsidiary diversions when he should be advancing the plot, and even his establishing shots overstay their welcome.

Although “Intervention” is peppered with biblical innuendo (the potheads justify their habit by citing Genesis), its devotion is mainly a matter of set dressing. It’s a romantic comedy in its Sunday best, dressed for church but skipping out on the sermon.

--

Sam Adams

“Divine Intervention.” MPAA Rating: Unrated. Running Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes. At Laemmle’s Grand 4-Plex, 345 S. Figueroa St. (213) 617-0268.

‘Sasquatch’ takes on geeks, bullies

Imagine a suburban “Napoleon Dynamite” with a slightly dirtier sense of humor, and you’re well on the way to “The Sasquatch Gang.” Convinced that a set of oversize footprints and a “very large selection of feces” point to the existence of Bigfoot, curly-haired Gavin (Jeremy Sumpter) and his group of mismatched misfits match wits against bullies, brutes and thick-headed adults as they attempt to prove their discovery.

Broken into chapters prefaced by comic-book tableaux and given titles like “Gavin and the Fortean Wilderness,” Tim Skousen’s debut is ostentatiously geeky. When he’s not engaging in Renaissance Faire swordplay, Gavin flirts with a shy video-store clerk (Addie Land) by dropping “Ladyhawke” references. Justin Long and Joey Kern’s mouth-breathing dropouts may talk tough, but they can barely muster the wit to microwave a corn dog.

Most of the movie’s villains are slack-jawed variations on Beavis and Butt-Head, but Kern’s high-pitched dimwit steals the show. As his eyes glaze over, you can see a thought try to cross his face and give up halfway.

Although the movie’s aesthetics are less suffocating than “Napoleon’s,” “Sasquatch” shares with its predecessor a pronounced discomfort with the idea of sex; it’s a coming-of-age movie that’s afraid to grow up. (Or, alternately, the anti-”Superbad.”) Skousen’s direction is solid, if not hugely distinctive, but the movie’s pre-adolescent ambivalence is eerier than any Yeti.

--

Sam Adams

“The Sasquatch Gang.” MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude humor and language. Running Time: 1 hour, 24 minutes. At Regency Fairfax Theatres, 7907 Beverly Blvd. (323) 655-4010; AMC 30 at the Block, 20 City Blvd. West, Orange. (714) 769-4262.