Once every three months or so, my middle school choir director came down with an incurable case of “fuck this job” and let an ancient television with built-in VHS teach her class for a week. Sometimes we watched Penn and Teller specials or a poorly produced period drama about George Frideric Handel, but more often than not the director defaulted to popping in a decade-old recording of Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit and calling it a day. Those were the best days of the year.
Imagine if Hamilton only existed at an incredibly small private school in New Jersey and you might approach the level of reverence we held for Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. Choir was mandatory back then, which meant that by the time any student hit 8th grade they had seen the movie at least twelve times in class. Every beat, every song, and every Whoopi Goldberg one-liner was canonized in the gospel of our school’s microculture, and I for one still hold Sister Act 2 to be as good if not better than Citizen Kane.
I for one still hold Sister Act 2 to be as good if not better than Citizen Kane.
For those who haven’t seen it, Sister Act 2 is the 1993 sequel to Sister Act, a movie I have never seen and do not care about (it took years for me to realize Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit was a sequel in the first place, having long ago rationalized the titular “2” as a Seven Samurai sort of deal). In it, Whoopi Goldberg plays a Las Vegas entertainer who is friends with a lot of nuns for reasons I’m sure are covered in the first movie but can’t possibly be that important, and those nun friends convince her to save their flailing Catholic school by leading the student choir to a state competition win.
Whoopi Goldberg takes the name Sister Mary Clarence and poses as a nun to whip a gaggle of aggressively '90s-era urban youths into musical shape and shake up the choral establishment by incorporating rap and hip hop into whatever boring hymn stuff they were doing before. Lauryn Hill plays the main '90s teen, they do a rap breakdown in the middle of “Joyful Joyful,” and there’s even a funky scene where the nuns rock out to “Ball of Confusion” by The Temptations simply because the plot demands it. Like I said, better than Citizen Kane.
Now that I am many years removed from middle school, I’m pleased to see something of a Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit renaissance bloom on social media. When Lizzo performed an homage to the movie’s final number at the 2019 MTV TV & Movie Awards I was gobsmacked to see how many people got the reference and happily tweeted their own memories of watching the movie. I realized that my love for Sister Act 2 wasn’t unique in my generation and felt an instant kinship with those who knew the true power of Sister Mary Clarence.
That other people remember such specific elements of Sister Act 2 is easily chalked up to its enduring musical moments. Its plot is forgettable and I'd give all the money in my wallet to anyone who can name ten of its characters without looking it up, but its set pieces are the sort that lodge in the brain upon first viewing and never, ever leave.
Consider its most iconic scene, which serves as the film's turning point and the moment at which Sister Mary Clarence's ragtag choir might have a fighting chance to save their school. The choir performs "Oh Happy Day" at assembly, and Ahmad the soloist is absolutely whiffing it. His voice cracks and no one can hear him over the music, but an impromptu breakdown and a dose of Whoopi magic transform him into a confident singer capable of delivering an E natural high on the line "when Jesus waaaaashed".
The note, which in real life is nigh-impossible to hit, is flawless. Both Sister Mary Clarence and the audience feel pride, surprise, and sheer amazement at the sound coming out of a sixteen-year-old boy, and from then on the music just keeps getting better. The finale's hip-hop version of "Joyful Joyful" comes after another memorable scene when a backstage attendant at the choir competition conveys Sister Mary's message to take off their robes and perform in streetwear, leading to a colorful and totally unique show that obviously wins the day.
Put simply, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit's collection of feel-good moments and dope beats feels damn good to watch. Its sonic joys encapsulate the feeling of being in the sixth grade and seeing a hungover teacher roll in the TV stand for a movie you've seen before but always love. Now that Sister Act 2 is readily available to stream on Disney+ for the first time, my first order of business will be to queue it up and let it wash over me for the first time in almost fifteen years.
Sorry, that's let it waaaaaaash over me. Oh happy day indeed.
Topics Disney+
