Butler's Cinema Scene

A North Dakota church becomes a haven for homeless men drawn by the fracking boom.

“THE OVERNIGHTERS”  My rating: B+ (Opens Nov. 7 at the Alamo Drafthouse)

90 minutes | PG-13

A documentary that plays almost like a scripted drama, “The Overnighters” is both a deeply personal story of a spiritually-driven but flawed individual and a damning commentary on the American economy in the new millennium.

Jesse Moss’ film is set in Williston, N.D., a small town in the midst of the fracking boom. There are lots of well-paying jobs in the petroleum industry, and that has attracted thousands of desperate men who arrive daily by car, camper and bus to find work.

Problem is, many if not most of them won’t get a job.  They are more or less stranded in Williston with no income, no housing, no hope.

That’s where Pastor Jay Reinke of the Concordia Lutheran Church comes in.  Reinke has turned his church into a crash pad for these newcomers, allowing many to sleep in their vehicles in the parking lot while others camp out in the church’s offices and classrooms.

Reinke’s motivations seem altruistic — “Who is my neighbor? How do I serve him?” — but there’s a price to pay.

Pastor Jay Reinke

Members of his congregation aren’t happy that their place of worship is now filled with the homeless.  Crime in tiny Williston is on the upswing. The city council is developing an ordinance that would prevent the church from taking in these “overnighters.”

And then there’s the strain on Reinke — whose workload has effectively tripled — and his wife and two teenage children.

The film also looks at some of the men Reinke is attempting to help.  A few are middle-class earners now out of work for the first time. Others have criminal records and have known poverty for most of their lives.

Reinke — who may be the least judgmental man of the cloth you’ll encounter — tries to give good counsel and generate hope.  He admonishes his visitors to do their best to clean up and look respectable.  When one of them protests — “Does Jesus have short hair?”  –the Reverend replies: “Jesus doesn’t have my neighbors.”

He has self doubts, wondering if he’s too soft a touch. Eyebrows will skyrocket when Reinke allows a convicted sex offender to stay in his family’s home (because if word got out that a sex offender was sleeping in the church proper the program would be shut down in a heartbeat). Occasionally those he has helped turn on him.

Moss must have endeared himself to his subjects…how else to explain the intimate moments captured here?

This is a heartbreaking look at how way too many Americans are getting by (or not). It’s also a detailed personality study that concludes with a stomach-churning revelation about Reinke that sends “The Overnighters” into the realm of Greek tragedy.

|Robert W. Butler