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‘Sword of Trust’ takes a stab at internet conspiracies | Movie review

A Civil War relic starts a sinister bidding war among cultists in Lynn Shelton's comedy 'Sword of Trust,' starring Marc Maron and Jillian Bell.

From left, Jillian Bell, Michaela Watkins, Marc Maron and Jon Bass in "Sword of Trust." MUST CREDIT: IFC Films
From left, Jillian Bell, Michaela Watkins, Marc Maron and Jon Bass in "Sword of Trust." MUST CREDIT: IFC FilmsRead more

Sword of Trust can be admired more for its thrust than its edge.

There’s much to admire in the way writer-director Lynn Shelton explores the volatile mixture of fiction, conspiracy, and profiteering that exists online — so much that you wish the movie had a little more bite.

Shelton’s droll little comedy stars stand-up comedian and podcast pioneer Marc Maron as Mel, a pawn shop owner in Birmingham, Ala. His customers include two women (Michaela Watkins and Jillian Bell) who’ve inherited a Civil War relic with a backstory suited to the conspiratorial internet age: It’s said to be a sword given by a surrendering Union general to his victorious Confederate counterpart, and is actually proof that the South won the war, a development obscured by the greatest cover-up since … the efforts to disguise the fact that the Bush administration brought down the World Trade Center, Hillary Clinton eats children in the back room of a D.C. pizza shop, the moon landing was fake, the earth is flat, and so forth.

Anyway, Mel shoos the women away, then fires up his search engine and discovers (surprise) an entire online community of “proofers” collecting relics that they believe are evidence of a Southern victory, since covered up by coastal elites, or FEMA, or George Soros, or Bugs Bunny, or whoever covers that stuff up.

The idea of a confederate victory is toxic and false, but it’s also potentially lucrative, so Mel and the ladies join forces to market their heirloom to interested parties — this yields some laughs, but Shelton is satisfied to lean on caricature here in a way that doesn’t help the movie.

At the same time, she leaves room to explore the emotional/psychological particulars of her main characters (she has a cameo as Mel’s drug-addicted girlfriend, a one-sided relationship that’s hollowed out his life), and she has a good cast with which to do this, though Bell, who’s usually such a live-wire in movies, feels tamped down here.

The movie is more interesting for its ideas. Among them: the ethical implications of making money from the possible advancement of a retrograde and dangerous belief system, a consideration that probably seems a stuffy afterthought to a generation raised on brands, clicks, and memes. Shelton goes further, emphasizing (no doubt accurately) the component of cynical profiteering that feeds the online beast.

This is such an interesting subject that I wanted Shelton to explore further the consequences and implications of her premise — for instance, the slippery nature of belief among the believers. The most absurd narratives surely contain something that adherents find valid, or validating, or pleasing — or maybe living in a welcoming, like-minded community of believers is more satisfying than wandering the petrified forest of facts.

Sword of Trust. Directed by Lynn Shelton. With Marc Maron, Jillian Bell, Michaela Watkins, Jon Bass, Toby Huss, Dan Bakkedahl. Distributed by IFC Films.

Parents’ guide: R (language)

Running time: 1 hour, 28 mins.

Playing at: Ritz at the Bourse