Sibling Christian auteurs Alex and Stephen Kendrick (Alex directs, they both co-write) bring their latest faith-based flick to the masses. You may mock, but for whatever it’s worth, it opened against The Crow and absolutely smashed it, both critically and at the box office.
How to watch New Zealand in Australia
The Forge is screening in New Zealand cinemas right now.
What is The Forge about?
A year out of high school, young Isaiah Wright is whiling away his days playing basketball and video games. This doesn’t sit well with his mother Cynthia, who tells him to get his act into gear or start looking for a couch to crash on. Applying for a job at a fitness equipment wholesaler, Isaiah finds a mentor in company founder Joshua Moore, who also introduces him to his all male prayer circle, the “forge” of the title. And so we follow Isaiah on his journey to faith, respectability, and responsibility.
As it happens, The Forge is a spin-off from the brothers Kendrick’s previous film, War Room, with a few recurring characters. So if you enjoyed that, you’ll probably enjoy this.
The cast of The Forge
Aspen Kennedy is Isaiah Wright; Priscilla Shirer is his mother, Cynthia Wright, and her identical twin sister, Elizabeth, who she played in War Room; T.C. Stallings is Tony Jordan, Elizabeth’s husband; Cameron Arnett is Joshua Moore, Isaiah’s mentor; BJ Arnett is Janelle Moore, Joshua’s wife; Karen Abercrombie is Miss Clara Williams; and NFL player (and outspoken anti-abortionist) Ben Watson appears as himself.
The Forge trailer
Why we’re excited about The Forge
The Kendricks have been at the faith-based film game for over 20 years now, and their films regularly do boffo business with that market and get outstanding audience responses. Having said that, not many people outside of that self-selecting audience are likely to check out an evangelical film, so they’re figuratively and almost literally preaching to the choir. We’ll just say that if you like this sort of thing you’ll like this, and leave it at that.
