Red State Review

Kevin Smith’s recent output has been received; it’s fair to say, with a great deal less fervour than he would have been used to with his earlier work. Clerks 2 was an unnecessary and tedious revisit to former glories, and this reviewer gave Zack and Miri Make a Porno andCop Out a wide berth after the near unanimous pillorying they were subject to. Additionally, Smith had alienated a great deal of the blogging community by cancelling a previous screening of Red State at the last minute – it was half expected that this screening might be pulled too. However, buzz on the film had been interesting. Perhaps not broadly positive, but definitely interesting. Furthermore, Red Statemarks Smith’s first true step away from the genre of comedy, so many were curious to see how Smith fared out of his comfort zone.

Three teens in the Southern United States decide to employ the services of a local prostitute. Unfortunately for them, the prostitute is actually a member of extremist preacher Abin Cooper’s fanatical church (much like the Westboro Baptist Church) and the boys are imprisoned and sentenced to die in the cult’s compound. The police catch wind of this and lay siege to the zealots.

Red State is pretty much the definition of a mixed bag. It does a lot of interesting and good things but there’s also a great deal of unnecessary rough around the edges. For example, Michael Parks’ portrayal of the vicious Cooper is excellent. He deftly balances the dangerous seductive side of Cooper and the hateful bigot remarkably and his delivery of the pastor’s vile rhetoric is completely convincing. John Goodman as Agent Keenan and Kerry Bishé as Cooper’s granddaughter Cheyenne also give admirable performances.

But for every good aspect of the film, there is something that niggles or even annoys. Most notable among Red State’s faults would be Smith’s obsession with shakey-cam. It’s like the man’s just discovered hand-held cameras. There’s hardly a stable shot in the thing, which is very grating. The biggest problem with the film though is that it is incredibly difficult to care about any of the characters. Obviously the church is reprehensible, but their treatment at the hands of the police is similarly barbaric – this is obviously meant as an indictment of extreme authoritarian responses to extremism, which is a perfectly admirable comment to make, but had the unintended effect of making the audience not care who lives and dies as everybody is just as much as a bastard as the next person.

More positively, there is a stand-out moment in the film though it won’t be spoiled here as it’s very much the climactic moment, but for a second you think that the film is going to shrug off its realism and possibly drop Alanis Morrissette into the mix before Smith reels us back in with a cheeky epilogue in which loose ends are literally explained away.

One thing that did surprise was that it wasn’t until after that fact that I was made aware that the film was being billed as a horror. I suppose it does loosely fit into that category, though it plays out much more like an action thriller. Whatever you call it and despite its many failings, Red Stateis worth a look simply because it’s something different – perhaps not anything radically different from many other films, but something very different for Smith. To see a director who for so long has been in something of a rut branch out and try something new is very welcome.