Synopsis
Desperate, broken men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local Pastor's decision to help them has extraordinary and unexpected consequences.
2014 Directed by Jesse Moss
Desperate, broken men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local Pastor's decision to help them has extraordinary and unexpected consequences.
-The Overnighters is the closest movie to my work that I've found. Calvary feels more emotionally resonant and Wendy and Lucy best expresses the lives of the people I serve, but I can't deny the connection between myself and Pastor Jay Reinke. Temperamentally, we couldn't be more different. He's a people-pleaser and I get a rush from conflict. He is concerned with what people think, and I'm more concerned with how people act. As a pastor, I chose to begin my own congregation of the homeless rather than deal with the back and forth of middle class values.
-Some of the scenes remind me of A Time for Burning, when we have the clear hypocrisy of a congregation (or part…
A devastatingly truthful look at the modern man's search for the "American dream," The Overnighters is one of the more poignant documentaries of the year. Having the courage to ask tough questions to the audience with no easy answers, Overnighters sheds light on an ever-changing capitalist economy, while also examining pervasive issues such as homelessness, religious freedoms, and (SPOILER) sexual identity. Surely there are conversations to be had post-viewing.
Described as a contemporary "Grapes of Wrath," the film exposes the lengths that individuals (and subsequently their families) go to in order for an opportunity or a work venture. Whether or not you believe what the film's "protagonist" was doing is helpful, harmful, or self-serving, there's no denying the emotional gut-punch…
"It’s true: I’m the one who’s broken."
- Pastor Jay Reinke
The credits rolled and I paced back and forth for a solid couple of minutes. Blown away.
One of the best character's study in a film. Mainly because it was unintended.
The primary object of investigation of this documentary never ceases to be compelling, but its background surpasses it due to the community's hostility towards the program. Only few movies have a real life-changing epiphany in them. The pastor's belief of the church helping sinners to overcome their problems (that it's obviously reasonable) is discovered to be a resonance of his own errors.
Overall the doc immensely succeeds in portraying the people, in delicate situation, as being more than their flaws. It's made clear that "they're not their mistakes" and that's something incredibly hard to achieve. Kinsley, specially, could be regarded as one profound anti-hero, and his end is perfectly fitting to the movie's point.
Is the sign of an effective documentary, one that inspires a viewer to action, or one that leaves the viewer in a pool of existential angst? I mean, I'd love to take what I've seen and have a clear path forward, knowing who's in the right and who's in the wrong, but it isn't going to happen. Can I blame the pastor for opening the doors of his church to do just what his doctrine teaches him to do, or the congregation for feeling overwhelmed with the charitable mandate put upon them? No, neither. Should a newspaper provide important information to its community, that may keep even one person safe? Is it right to look beyond a criminal record and…
An important and spectacular glimpse of American blue-collar migrants and one man's deep religious convictions being overwhelmed by practicality and societal hurdles.
A final act revelation slightly detracts from the formidable and nuanced issues presented, but overall- forceful and necessary.
“The world is a broken place,” Pastor Jay Reinke states. He is correct, but he is speaking to a broken man as a broken man himself. What makes THE OVERNIGHTERS so remarkable is that until the end, we don't know just how broken Reinke is.
The sudden economic boom from fracking has made journeymen far and wide travel to North Dakota in search of work and lucrative employment. Some find it, many don't but hardly any of them have a place to stay. That was until Reinke allowed them to stay in the church and sleep in their cars in the church parking lot. An act of grace that the community and the local paper does not look fondly upon.…
Pastor Jay Reinke opens up his Williston, North Dakota church to migrant laborers while they try to find fracking work. “Why do you got all them trash over there?” is a typical query from the neighbors, but Reinke keeps with it while insisting on the non self-serving purity of his motives. “I know for me, the public persona, you can believe that,” he says up top, an assertion put into question (as is the entire narrative) by an ending twist best left unnoted. There are rare flights of associative fancy — Halloween revelers in masks stand in image for one migrant who’s a registered sex offender, imagining him as a literal monster — but functional verite camerawork isn’t particularly responsive or detail-oriented, not helped by T. Griffin’s stock of-the-moment score (so much work for banjo players these days). This is the kind of impressive journalism that would play just as well (better, probably) as a long-form article.
This is a complex and overwhelming documentary with a shattering unexpected finale. It is not what one might think it is. It opens as the heart-warming description of a very altruistic and generous Lutheran pastor who opens his church to the numerous travelers coming to North Dakota in search of a job. The 'overnighters' are the many men and women who sleep in the church facility or in its parking lot. The pastor welcomes them with great kindness even if his community and neighbors are against what they perceive his excessive generosity.
But if you think this is a movie about the fight between a good Christian church and its unsupportive environment you are mistaken. Be ready for some disturbing twists and turns, and a heartbreaking ending.