Review of Red State (2011) by Walter M — 16 Nov 2012

In "Red State," high school buddies Travis(Michael Angarano), Billy Ray(Michael Braun) and Jarod(Kyle Gallner)borrow a car from Travis' parents(Anna Gunn & John Lacy) to visit a woman(Melissa Leo) who Travis met on the internet and will have sex with all three friends at the same time. Along the way, they accidentally clip a parked car belonging to the sheriff(Stephen Root) when he is getting a blow job from a man(Joey Figueroa). That's not the worst part of the night for them as they are drugged in the woman's trailer, only for Jarod to wake up in a cage, so he can listen to a lengthy sermon from Abin Cooper(Michael Parks), the local fearmonger, who shows that he means business when his followers kill Billy Ray in front of his friends.

Not really counting "Dogma," "Red State" is Kevin Smith's first foray into political filmmaking which I applaud for the effort. However, I am not really sure what he is trying to say. Maybe it is true that we should take bigots more seriously because they might really be heavily armed serial killers instead of just inspiring others to commit acts of violence. Just as the movie is nowhere near as scary as it should be(the early issues of "Hellblazer" handled similar material much more intensely), Smith also seems to be condescending towards middle America where this is set in how badly he treats his characters, especially the friends who we have to wonder how dumb they are to fall for such an obvious trap.(Haven't they ever seen a horror movie?) Well, that's one movie and then there is the one starring John Goodman which points the political compass in completely the opposite direction. At least, Smith is still funny, albeit unintentionally this time.