Movie Review: ‘Saturday Church’

Review by Caitlin Zeigler

Ulysses (Luka Kain) loses his father and has to become “man of the house”. He has to watch over his obnoxious younger brother Abe (Jaylin Fletcher), while dealing with his extremely devout and conservative Aunt Rose (Regina Taylor), who decides to help out the family while mom, Amara (Margot Bingham) works overnight. At the same time, Ulysses is a 14-year-old boy bursting at the seams trying to live his life as his true self.

Rose finds out about Ulysses’ cross-dressing and tries to beat it out of him, so that he can be a “man”. Ulysses tries to hide who he is by letting his real self thrive at ‘Saturday church’. He follows all of Rose’s rules and leaves to hang out with people part of the LGBTQ+ community, some of which are prostitutes. They all know what he’s currently going through and offer him freedom to be himself. Ebony (MJ Rodriguez), Dijon (Indya Moore), Raymond (Marquis Rodriguez), Heaven (Alexia Garcia) and Joan (Kate Bornstein) help boost Ulysses’ self-confidence. They also give him what he truly needs: love and support.

After Rose finds out Ulysses lied and hasn’t quit his cross-dressing, she kicks him out of the house and Ulysses goes through one of the hardest journeys of his life. The good news is that he’ll still have his support at ‘Saturday church’. This film is beautiful and amazing. It’s shot well and has song and dance sequences that beautifully illustrate love, pain, struggle and triumph. It flows well, the acting is great and it shows you real struggles of people in the LGBTQ+ community. There are a few adult situations, but they help make the story what it’s meant to be: authentic. You won’t regret watching and you’ll root for everyone, especially Ulysses.