Habit Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Habit Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 30, 2021

There's that old saying that insists that "everything old is new again", and in that regard it was probably only a matter of time before someone attempted to revisit the so-called "nunsploitation" genre with some 21st century stylistic kickers (figuratively and literally speaking) thrown in. Nunsploitation is one of the more curious nooks and crannies of the film world, though a rather wide variety of films has tended to be stuffed into this particular corner. Some of them, like Ken Russell's The Devils, had A-list stars and at least pretensions of a more literary quality, but a lot of nunsploitation features were cheaply made, often with ridiculous writing and less than convincing performances. Habit would seem to be a bit of a combo platter, in that it offers at least a couple of well known names (including one cameo by someone probably more famous for being famous rather than her acting CV), but it also suffers from clumsy writing and some noticeable variances in performance style and/or quality.

In terms of the names some viewers will most likely recognize, Bella Thorne is on hand as focal character Mads, a young woman who has longed for a deeply personal relationship with Jesus, albeit perhaps in a more carnal way than most believers would. Mads hangs out with drug dealer Eric (Gavin Rossdale), which keeps Mads and her roommates Evie (Libby Mintz) and Addy (Andreja Pejic) supplied not just with a ready high, but a source of income. When a pile of drug money goes missing, Eric himself would seem to be in dire straits, since the head honcho of the entire drug empire is actually a honch-ette named Queenie (Josie Ho), who isn't averse to sending henchman Tuff (James Hince) out to make things "right", though the three women are also frightened and are further stressed by an eviction notice. A "mad" (Mads?) plan to impersonate nuns and get "donations" to pay back the missing money ensues, and that is basically it for a plot setup, with the film darting pretty wildly hither and yon in the cinematic equivalent of a drug trip.

What's kind of odd about Habit is how it tries to be elaborately written, at least in terms of little character bits like Eric, a failed actor, waxing poetic about life in Los Angeles, or even some of Mads' interior monologues about various subjects including everything from faith to addiction. That attempt seems completely irrelevant given the incoherence of various aspects of the story, not to mention the clear fact that co-writer and director Janell Shirtcliff doesn't seem especially shy about favoring style over substance virtually from the get go. This is a film filled to bursting with hallucinogenic aspects, including any number of shots of Los Angeles and environs that have been weirdly graded toward pink hues. Other little sylistic bells and whistles include things like a lighting regimen that superimposes a cross on Mads' face during a scene in a hospital.

With regard to the cast member who is arguably mostly famous for being famous, ladies and gentlemen, I present one Paris Jackson to you in her celebrated role as Jesus. Yes, folks, you read that right, and kind of hilariously given how this film seemed to come and go without a ton of notice, in reading background material on it in preparation for writing this review, I guess one way it actually managed to raise a bit of a ruckus was with traditional Christians who didn't take kindly to what amounts to a Sapphic Christ (even within the guise of a drug and/or psychosis induced "vision").

It almost seems at times that Shirtcliff was aiming for an ultra black comedy with a winking self deprecatory ambience, but the tone here is not just wildly uneven, it's inconsistent to the point that nothing, either on the supposedly "funny" or dramatic sides, ever ends up registering very strongly. The film does coast by on a certain visceral energy level generated mostly by its hyperkinetic visuals. There are a couple of interesting trivia tidbits lurking in the film's cast and crew, including father and daughter duo Donovan Leitch (producer) and Ione Skye (co-star). For those unaware, Gavin Rossdale also has a kind of interesting musical background that same may want to investigate if they're so inclined.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf had about the same reaction to Habit that I did. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Habit Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Habit is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. I haven't been able to dredge up any authoritative technical data on the shoot, and the IMDb offers none, though the closing credits have an Arri logo, though I'm uncertain whether that refers to a camera used to digitally capture the imagery, or merely a rental facilitated by Arri. In any case, as can probably be gleaned pretty easily by paging through the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, it's kind of pointless to talk about regular data points like "clarity", "sharpness", "natural palette" and/or "detail levels", since the imagery is so obviously drastically tweaked a lot of the time. The foregoing is said with tongue maybe just slightly in cheek, but there are huge variances in this presentation in terms of detail simply due to all the stylistic adornments. There's very little here that I would term "natural looking" in terms of the palette, and there are really odd but admittedly evocative grading choices that tend to emphasize things like peach tones and pinks. A number of interstitials almost look like old anaglyph 3D imagery being viewed without the proper glasses, with the added bonus of frequent pink overlays. In the outdoor material in particular, even considering some of the extreme grading choices and other stylistic peculiarities, detail levels can be surprisingly fulsome at times. There are occasional flirtations with banding due to the huge gamut of lighting choices utilized, and there are some other moments that I'm frankly unsure are the result of more stylistic tweaking or some compression issues that introduce some pixellated yellows.

Habit Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Habit features a boisterous DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that adequately recreates a sonic experience that is in its own way psychedelic. While there's never really any problem with dialogue or voiceover elements, the mix is deliberately "busy" a lot of the time, with a bunch of source cues that frequently pump energetically through the side and rear channels. The glut of outdoor material along with a couple of raucous party scenes also provide good opportunities for immersive effects. Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are available.

Habit Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 2:26)

Additionally, a digital copy is included.

Habit Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Habit is rarely boring to watch from a purely visual perspective, but if this is "new, improved" nunsploitation, give me Z-grade efforts like Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun any day (I think I may live to regret this sentiment, as the trailer for this film has been included on a number of releases from another label I cover, and I suspect a Blu-ray may be in the offing). Shirtcliff is certainly a stylist, but style over substance and/or transubstantiation only goes so far. Technical merits are generally solid for those who are considering making a purchase.