The Forge is so silly. Why is it so silly? Because The Forge doesn’t know it is silly. The deep unirony of this film is its great strength and brutal enemy, all at once. So let’s jump aboard the silly train to see why this film elicits as much unintentional laughter as it does tears of joy.
Isaiah Wright (Aspen Kennedy) is an aimless 19 year old kid living in Charlotte North Carolina. His mom Cynthia (Priscilla Shirer) tries to parent him into growing up, but’s its not going as planned. She ultimatums her son: get a job in a month, or move out. Eventually, Isaiah finds part time work at Moore Fitness, when he bumps into the owner Joshua (Cameron Arnett), who for some reason takes a shine to him. Turns out, Joshua and this part time job would fill in the gaps Isaiah’s absent dad left behind, helping this kid learn what type of man he wants to become.
The silliness of The Forge comes from it’s coinflip nature. On the “heads” good side, this movie is teaching kids out there to be a better people, at least on the surface. Isaiah learns to help people by volunteering at shelters for the needy. The job teaches him responsibility to his fellow man, which in turn he passes onto his mom, his coworkers and others who look lost. Most importantly, this faith in Jesus driven life helps Isaiah deal with the gaping hole in his heart left by his deadbeat dad: a pain that holds him back from all the good things in life he can experience, probably the emotional highlight of the movie.
But here’s The Forge’s “tails” flip, if you will. What exactly happens to Isaiah when you dig a little deeper? This movie makes him take mandatory “mentoring” lessons BEFORE his work shifts by Joshua. Weird…but ok I guess. This movie completely black and white’s Isaiah after these lessons: his old life is stupid, and therefore he must get rid of it; ergo, he gets rid of ok things like shoes or video games, but he also basically abandons all of his friends, who are gone from the picture by minute 30. Sounding a bit more like cult behavior right? Joshua then introduces Isaiah to The Forge: essentially a group of men that apparently spend all their time together. While their speeches together sound earnest, I certainly felt the latent homoeroticism of all these dudes eager to put their hands on one another to pray. Eventually, weapons get passed around, forged together, get it…forget the fact that this is supposed to be a peaceful helping others organization of men? Eventually all I could think about was how Joshua is emotionally manipulating this poor lost kid into his great solider, ready and willing to do ANYTHING this older man wants him to do. Culminating in what The Kendrick Brothers think is the climax of the movie. No, it’s not an hour before, where Isaiah gives up his hurt and pain and leaves it up to God to move forward, which would make sense for the movie and is a general good message about letting go. No, our climax is about saving a client for a big giant business. So let me get this straight, this whole movie about “spiritual awakening” is really an excuse to get some profits and hang out with a bunch of dudes as I’m being emotionally manipulated by a man who flirts heavily with abusing his power? Yep, that’s the flipside of The Forge’s coin, if you’re really paying attention.
The Kendrick Brothers can’t be stopped though. They use The Forge to build their own little cinematic universe from their previous films, making a bigger and stronger empire. We better do something, before it’s too late. Err, I mean, yay disciples in faith, spread the word? In the words of Regina George, whatever, I’m getting cheese fries.