In the finale of Jesus Christ Superstar, Judas chastises Jesus for bad timing: “If you’d come today you could have reached a whole nation…Israel in 4 B.C. had no mass communication.” This could serve as the launching point for Greg Sterlace’s new film, Sweet Jesus, which is more ambitious and provocative than his previous efforts, Ross and Gwen and Failure. The film screens at the Market Arcade Film and Arts Centre on Saturday, September 2nd, at 7pm.

Sitting through The Quiet, I couldn’t help thinking of the films it tries to emulate. There’s the high school cruelty of Carrie, the shocking frankness of a Neil LaBute drama (at least before LaBute started remaking horror flicks like this week’s The Wicker Man), the father-daughter incest of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and the ticking clock of High Noon. Unfortunately, this excruciatingly slow movie more closely resembles sleazy soap opera junk like Poison Ivy and Two Moon Junction. It is pretentious exploitation masquerading as arthouse fare, full of Big Lies and Bigger Secrets. Unlike Todd Solondz’s Happiness, it seeks to titillate with the very depravity it pretends to condemn.

The title may strike you as inappropriate for a gritty drama about a multinational cast of characters plying various illegal trades in the outskirts of Manhattan. Even worse, you might assume it to be ironic if you read any of the numerous reviews that compare it to Pulp Fiction for its multiple perspectives and looping time line.