As It Is In Heaven

As It Is In Heaven

Joshua Overbay’s first film, “As It Is in Heaven,” is unique among recent indie dramas about religious cults as the antagonist is the main character. Although some of the other characters are more likable, David (Chris Nelson) is always on the screen; he’s a madman who might be a prophet. Every other person we meet in the film and even those within Eamon’s (Luke Beavers) family exists only in relation to David.

This becomes trippily frustrating since we can’t access any of David’s emotions because everything that happens is through their eyes. What this means is that everyone else in “As It Is in Heaven” doesn’t matter, because they all either do what David tells them or react to his wishes.

This isn’t so much a narrative dead end as it is an appropriately tantalizing experience with no resolution for us to latch onto or a right and wrong answer for that matter. We are never told if David is actually anything more than crazy or if there was ever any hope for him at all. All we know for sure about “As It Is in Heaven” is that it takes place after the death of cult leader Edward (John Lina), when David leads a small group of nameless acolytes into a month long fast during which time he says they’ll know no hunger because God will destroy the world before 30 days have passed.

He was just one among many until Edward died and suddenly became leader; why should anyone believe this? Especially Eamon whose own faith begins to waver once fellow cultist Deb (Shannon Kathleen Baker) has to feed her baby behind his back.

The biggest strength of “As It Is in Heaven” is that Overbay never allows David, and his followers to stop acting as if they want to believe. He characterizes Edward/David’s followers through their passiveness, so he concentrates on their material actions, particularly their body language. Because he wants the characters’ inner lives to be shown through the place around them, he films characters’ faces in extreme close-ups only sparingly.

Nothing indicates the main characters’ deceptively troubled headspace like a crack of sunlight filtering through an open barn door; neither does anything show it like a thoughtfully composed image of Edward’s feet sticking out from the left-hand corner of the frame when David visits his surrogate father’s death bed. Whether consciously or not, this is how Overbay has his people define themselves: as willing prisoners of what they expect.

Such sympathetic perspective is refreshing; cult life can be seen without dehumanizing them by viewers thanks to this portrayal by Overbay. In that sense “As It Is in Heaven” deceives with all its confidence. Never for a moment does it let us forget that essentially internalized central conflict belongs entirely within each person involved with David; those following him simply desire faith in community and routine power while living together under one roof traditionally called commune where roles are designated based on collective needs such as cooking or cleaning but also fearing imminent apocalypse which unifies everybody there regardless individual differences like age gender nationality etcetera.

While being quite silent drama overall though sometimes seeming thin almost wispy aim wise still manages somehow bring forth much needed light among darknesses by inviting viewers become part these outcasts worlds making their battles genuine without using them scapegoats or turning into beasts instead.

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