Mangus! is a campy dark comedy, a trashy riot from Ash Christian, writer and director of Fat Girls. It’s as if Female Trouble and Napoleon Dynamite had a red-headed lovechild—with a cutting sense of humor and a colostomy bag.

Mangus Spedgwick has had one dream his whole life: to follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps by being Jesus – in his high school’s annual production of “Jesus Christ Spectacular”. Just when he’s got the part and the world is his oyster, a freak accident threatens to derail all of his dreams. The theater director (a brilliant Leslie Jordan) wants to keep Mangus as the lead, but the scheming Stage Mothers of Texas have other plans, and soon the School Board has decided that it wouldn’t be appropriate to have a wheelchair-bound Jesus. Not one to give up, Mangus rallies and fights for the part, finding himself in a strip club, at a murder scene, in a trailer park, and even in Florida before his journey is over.

Campy, trashy humor and an unbeatable premise combine with a cast of cult comedy icons like Jennifer Coolidge (Best in Show) as Mangus’s mother and Heather Matarazzo (Welcome to the Dollhouse) as his lesbian sister, along with an unforgettable cameo from John Waters himself. — CINDY M. EMCH