Review of Red State (2011) by Matthew R — 07 May 2012

Most of the current college generation is aware of the large filmography of director Kevin Smith, bringing many of us such cult favorites as Mall Rats, Clerks and Dogma. However, the most recent work of Kevin Smith was the independent film Red State. Unlike all of his previous films, Smith created a horror-action film that has a bite of its own that makes what I can consider to be the strongest film of his whole career. Released in 2011, the film played in very select cities and its theatrical run was brief. This is mainly due to the fact that Smith self-distributed the film after âthe film played to a good but not great reaction in its world premiere (at Sundance) and announced to the audience (after auctioning the film to himself for $20) that he would release the film on his own said LA Times reporter John Horn. It is quite true that the critical reaction to the film has been mixed, splitting the reaction amongst critics down the middle, however I believe Red State is a wonderfully executed film.

Shot on RED-ONE Digital cameras, the film is an overblown satirical commentary on the members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Ironically enough, the Westboro church members are actually mentioned by name in the film as a comparison to the fictional fanatical church members in the film. The movie starts out following a trio of teenage boys searching through local online sex lines, trying to find loose local women. They trek out to the woman's house (a mobile home in the woods) and then, while consuming the woman's alcohol, are drugged and pass out. They awake during a fanatical church sermon by the main antagonist of the film, Abin Cooper (played by Michael Parks), which I now consider to be one of the scariest performances put on screen in recent years. The rest of the film depicts the efforts of these boys to flee the compound and the fervent beliefs of all of the church members referring to homosexuality and its subsequent effects on humanity.

With superb cast members such as John Goodman (The Big Lebowski), Patrick Fischler (Mulholland Drive), Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects) and Melissa Leo (The Fighter), and a range of various other talent, the acting in this film is realistic, well blocked and very captivating. These performances are helped along by the brilliant cinematography by David Klein, which creates a taught and anxious setting where audiences are taken to face the horrors that the characters are living through, and we suffer along with them, whether we want to or not. All of these elements (along with superb art design by Susan Bolles ("Scrubs") and Cabot McMullen ("Spin City")) Kevin Smith directs his screenplay extraordinarily well, which contain very length and passionate monologues, and very testing scenes of violence and torture. However, unlike the many works of directors Eli Roth (Hostel) and Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw Franchise), these scenes are not placed to get solely a shock factor, they comment on the dangers of unchecked ideology in the face of fanaticism, similar to the tyrannical ways of Jim Jones hold over the People's Temple.

It is scary, realistic, and wickedly funny when it wants to be, thrilling and complex. Are there elements that could use work? Of course, as any movie would say, but what Red State does well, it does it extremely well. A film that so many have ignored for the past year, it is a movie that can soothe the wants and tastes of many a movie fan.