“Let’s just hope the Cooper Clan sticks with the First Amendment, and stays far, far away from the Second Amendment.”
The H-Bomb: Jarod (Kyle Gallner), Travis (Michael Angarano), and Billy-Ray (Nicolas Braun) are three horny high-schoolers who get more than they bargained for when they show up at Sara’s (Melissa Leo) trailer for an Internet rendezvous. What they imagined was going to be a wild and crazy night of three-on-one sex turns into a nightmare when they are taken captive by Abin Cooper (Michael Parks), a Fred Phelps-like preacher who shepherds a flock of gay hating Jesus freaks. Cooper and his congregation used to pull the usual nonsense of protesting at funerals and whatnot, but they’ve been upping the ante as of late by stockpiling assault weapons and executing gays, as well as other perceived moral degenerates, during Cooper’s sermons.
This time, it’s the three teens who are going to be sacrificed on the Pastor’s altar for their deviant, “fornicatin'” ways. But, without giving too much away, shit goes wrong… very wrong. Shots are fired, people are killed, and the ATF, led by John Goodman and Kevin Pollack, are called onto the scene. The fit hits the shan and everything goes nucking futs when Cooper and his clan barricade themselves inside their walled-in compound, with children and hostages inside, and the feds move into position on the outside, resulting in a Waco-type standoff… and that’s about as far as I’ll go, plot wise.
“Red State” is writer/director Kevin Smith’s balls out, no-holds-barred indie bounce back from his major studio flop “Cop Out” (a movie I didn’t hate as much as everyone else seemed to). In a way, it’s almost as if the Jersey born director is apologizing for “Cop Out” by doing the exact opposite of everything he did on that film; he wrote the script himself, raised the money himself, and even distributed it himself. It’s most definitely not the kind of film we’ve ever seen from him before. In fact, you’ll often have to remind yourself that you’re watching a Kevin Smith film, and even then, you’ll have a hard time believing it.
It’s only in the first twenty minutes or so that it even remotely feels like a Smith flick, with the foul mouthed teens talking about sex, sex, and… more sex. After that, it shifts into an intense, captive-tied-down type of torture porn, then shifts again into a stand off ‘n siege pic. It’s not exactly a horror movie, per se, but like many horror flicks, it is dark, violent, and even oppressive, with a mean, pessimistic undercurrent running throughout. It’s definitely not the kind of movie we would associate with this filmmaker… but he fuckin’ rocks it, nonetheless.
Simply put, “Red State” is, for the most part, fucking awesome. This, to me, is Smith’s first film since “Dogma” where he really seems to have something on his mind and where he’s really giving it everything he’s got. Like in “Dogma”, he’s once again saying that the only thing wrong with Christianity are the Christians, and it’s those who twist and pervert scripture to fit their own hateful beliefs who are once again the target of Smith’s satirical lashings. But they’re not the only ones, as Smith also takes aim at the inept Government Agents and Bureaucrats, more interested in saving face than saving lives. Even the victims, the kids who do all their thinking with the wrong head, are painted in a rather mocking light, and shown to be the shallow, chauvinistic dimwits that they are. No one here is let off the hook.
With this movie, Smith shows that not only does he have a dark side, but that he can be funny in a deeper, more clever way, without resorting to his typical “dick ‘n fart” jokes. The satire doesn’t always work, as there are some characters, like the closeted, bumbling local Sheriff, as well as the two cackling government suits towards the end, who come off as being a bit too cartoonish. But for the most part, Smith’s lampooning is spot on, and it’s often as funny as it is frightening.
Tone and subject matter aside, “Red State” is also a major aesthetic departure for Smith, as it features a dirty, desaturated, hand-held look, something akin to “The Devil’s Rejects”, which this movie reminded me of in a number of ways, though things never quite get as intense as they did in Rob Zombie’s film. As far as the acting is concerned, I would say there certainly aren’t any slouches in the lot, though there are two very notable standouts: Melissa Leo and Michael Parks.
Leo, of course, won a much deserved Oscar for “The Fighter” this past year, and her turn here proves that she’s no one hit wonder. She plays the easily led Christian zealot Sara with crazy eyed intensity and a cold blooded ferocity, all the while not falling into the trap of making her one note or a caricature. She may be a complete moon-bat, but she’s also a dedicated family woman who loves her children and her church. It would have been easy to go overboard into whacko-land with Sara, but Leo made her real instead, and added yet another knockout performance to her resume.
But it’s Parks who deserves the real accolades. The guy’s always been a solid character actor, but what he gives here is easily a career defining performance. Smith actually challenged people to name five actors who have given better performances this year. Well, I’ve actually thought about it, and I can’t even come up with one. Cooper is a certifiable nut-job of a Pastor, but Parks plays him as being calm, collected, and surprisingly charismatic. When he goes off on one of his lengthy sermons, I can’t help but be captivated, even though everything he’s spouting is reprehensible, bigoted drivel. This is a case where the actor maketh the movie, and Parks should win every award that Hollywood gives out this year.
Is there anything to bitch ‘n moan about, aside from the aforementioned cartoonish characters? Well, I would say this “horror film” does sometimes fall into that horror film trap of having characters do stupid things simply because the plot needs them to; like when one of the captives gets his hands on an assault rifle, yet does not take everyone out, even though he very easily could. But, this kind of flagrant dumb-assery happens infrequently enough that it can be forgiven.
When all is said and done, “Red State” is an “unlikely film from THAT Kevin Smith” that’s almost excellent. I think that if the Tarantino/Rodriguez “Grindhouse” experiment had worked out as intended, and spawned an ongoing series, this would have been Smith’s contribution to it. It doesn’t hurt that his wild script plays out in ways that are as unconventional as they are unpredictable (I defy anyone to guess how it all ends), making “Red State” a unique, curious little pic that not only broadens Smith’s abilities as a director, but also makes for what is easily his best film in over a decade.
