Film Review: Red State

Director: Kevin Smith

Kevin Smith announced that his next film would be a change in direction after the View Askewniverse films and other such films like Cop Out. The subject of the film is quite controversial itself in portraying a cult like religious group who imprison gays and other sinners but wasn't as controversial as Smith's behaviour at the Sundance Film Festival where it was first shown. He initially announced that the film would be auctioned after the screening but then bought the rights to his own movie (for $20) and set off round the world to distribute it. Although he did use Lionsgate to help him distribute the film on DVD and other on-demand services after the cinema run was over.

Travis (Michael Anganaro) and Billy Ray (Nicholas Braun)

Travis (Michael Anganaro), Jared (Kyle Gallner) and Billy Ray (Nicholas Braun) decide to drive to meet a woman (Melissa Leo) who has offered to have sex with all three of them in a trailer out of town. She drugs the beers that they are drinking so they collapse and are held prisoner inside the Five Points Church which is run by Abin Cooper (Michael Parks). There Jared witnesses a gay man being tied to a cross before being executed and dropped through a hole in the floor where his two other friends are whilst the police and ATF agent come looking for the missing boys.

The centre-piece of the movie is the speech by Abin Cooper in the church in front of the congregation, delivering a hate filled speech which lasts nearly 10mins in length which is an unsettling speech as there are lots of people out there who share these beliefs. Unfortunately like lots of moments in the film the message is lost amongst needless ranting and is over-written as too many ideas fight for breath amongst one speech. This aside Michael Parks is the lead performance in the movie and one of the very few saving graces.

Abin Cooper (Michael Parks)

My flatmate saw the movie at the cinema with a Q&A afterwards which he described more as Smith just talking at length about the movie etc rather than many questions from the audience. I was hugely disappointed with the whole movie and my expectations weren't that high based on the trailer and general buzz on the internet. It starts off in a similar slacker vain to other Smith films before turning into a re-enactment of the Waco siege in 1993 where dozens of people died in a battle between authorities and a religious cult.

The whole thing is a bit of a mess, the camerawork and editing is shoddy which makes you feel ill. Smith produces characters that you don't care about, aside from ATF Special Agent Keenan but that's only because John Goodman plays him, so when the bloodshed starts you aren't concerned in any way whilst the ending was a debacle in itself (although an alternate ending that was mentioned by Smith is even worse). The film is marketed as a horror but isn't anywhere near scary, tense or gory enough to be one, it isn't particularly political in what it has to say and apart from a few moments of dark humour it isn't a comedy. In the end it was just a film that stole 80mins of my life.

0.5/4 shoddily filmed and a bore of a film with too many holes.