John Michael McDonagh

I’m a big fan of those...late '60s, early '70s movies that all had this...anti-authoritarian edge to them as well. So there are a lot of dumb jokes in the movie, but there are other jokes that are...a bit more pointed and confrontational.

The film's self-conscious gestures in the direction of fish-out-of-water comedies, buddy-cop movies and Westerns don't amount to much in and of themselves, but they tie together as a functional clothesline for character comedy and left-field drama.

The resulting mystery-play-goes-mystery-movie allegory may have a heavy hand, but it also has its finger on the pulse of the struggles facing the [Catholic] Church and the emotional needs of its drifting parishioners.