Elvis-inspired religious musical The Identical
…squirt a little mustard and relish on The Identical. The latest in a long line of cynically tailored religious films to reach theater screens this year, director Dustin Marcellino’s Middle Tennessee-shot musical drama (which won the Audience Award at this year’s Nashville Film Festival) doesn’t offer the tangible feel-good gimmick that Heaven Is for Real capitalized on a few months ago, relying instead on a weak alt-history plot that asks what would have happened if a thinly disguised Elvis Presley’s twin brother had survived. That’s not going to have your neighborhood church renting out theaters quite as quickly as telling them, “Guys, we swear, you’re not wasting your time every Sunday,” so the film may already be one strike down with its constituents.
