The Neon Bible Movie Review

To date, the only film adaptation of any work by celebrated author John Kennedy Toole is this, The Neon Bible, a book Toole wrote at the age of 16 and which he dismissed as unpublishable. (They published it anyway two decades after his death.) It is, by most accounts, a not-very-good book, and it's a far from good movie. The story concerns a young southern boy reminiscing about his life, his strange/abusive family, and religion, while riding on a train. Between lingering shots out the window, our young hero dreams of revival tents and creepy neighbors, all seen through the lens of one of cinema's most overrated directors, Terence Davies. Like so many of his films, Neon is full of gorgeous photography and minimal substance.