Friday’s openings: a bit of religion, muddled inspiration

Above : Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown star in “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul,” which opens Friday. (Photo/Focus Features)

It looks as if the summer-movie season is finally drying up. Only a couple of mainstream releases are scheduled to open on Friday.

Not that the releases themselves should be considered minor. At least one of them is receiving more than a few decent reviews.

“Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul” : Written and directed by Adamma Ebo, the film stars Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown as a wife-husband evangelical team who seek to rebuild their mega-church congregation following a scandal.

Soren Anderson of the Seattle Times is nothing less than ecstatic, describing the film as “A stunning cinematic achievement.”

Kate Erbland of IndieWire calls the film “A winning combination of the divine and the horrific, a takedown of not just fervent religiosity but our own worst human impulses.”

And regardless of its other qualities, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “ ‘Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul’ contains some of the best acting you’ll see all year.”

“Gigi & Nate” : Directed by Nick Hamm, the film stars Charlie Rowe as a young man who, because of a virus, is left quadriplegic. His life changes when he meets an unlikely service animal, a capuchin monkey named Gigi.

Critic Roger Moore was unimpressed. “It begins with a surprisingly touching tragedy, morphs into a cute story of hope and then hurls itself headlong into a nasty take on one corner of the animal rights debate,” he wrote.

This, he added, “is what happens when you round up a good cast and a pretty polished director for a screenplay that turns away from its strengths, takes a swing at ‘important,’ and misses.”

I’ll update as the week progresses.