Red State

Director: Kevin Smith

Starring: Michael Parks, John Goodman, Michael Angarano, Kerry Bishe, Nicholas Braun, Kyle Gallner

When the posters claimed that this was the most unlikely film by @ThatKevinSmith (his catchy Twitter name) they were certainly not underplaying the point.  Anyone expecting his usual style of comedy, fuelled with smutty language, stoner references, and jokes about bodily functions will be sorely disappointed/surprised/pleased (delete as appropriate).  Instead he has delivered here a film which shows a great degree of progression on his part as a director.

Apparantly concieved as a dare (if a throwaway comment at a recent Q&A session is anything to go by), Red State tells a tale about a small town community, outside of which a fanatical religious sect are located at Five Points Church.  The head of the church, and indeed the large family of the sect, is Abin Cooper, played by the ever wonderful Michael parks.  Outside of the church he and his family of followers preach about the wickedness of the promiscuous world of today, and the devils of homosexuality.  Inside the church much more sinister preaching takes place, as three students filnd out after arranging a sex-hookup on an internet site.  As the events escalate, local law enforcement and a special taskforce are dispatched to sort out the mess - but things go from bad to worse pretty swiftly as this is one sect that doesn't want to stop, and nor do they fear death.

This is a film that I really want to see again, in order to truely decide how I feel about it.  Don't get me wrong, I did like it, and it was a damn sight better than Cop Out (Smith's last, misguided effort).  I am just not sure if Red State is a decent film, good film, or great film.  Going in not sure what to expect, I was a bit startled by what Smith had actually delivered.  There is barely a touch of the old Smith in here, and you would be forgiven if you thought Tarantino had made the film.  In addition there are no characters that the audience can latch onto and emote with - you don't know who you are supposed to root for, or if you even should bother to.  This makes it a difficult film, but also surprisingly fresh, and perhaps that was the whole point - we are just observers of a situation, and it is up to ourselves individually to decide who we side with.  In an even curiouser move, the few moments of genuine compassion that are shown on screen come from Abin and his family, lending the 'monsters' of the film more humanity than the supposed 'good-guys'.  There are one or two moments of John Goodman's ATF agent questioning his orders, but even that pales next to the love that Abin shows for his grandchildren, or the small moments of husbands and wives embracing and supporting each other.  Adding a human side to characters who are, to all intents and purposes, rotten to the core is a nice move by Smith, and makes them a lot more interesting to boot.

The film is heavy on dialogue, with scenes such as the sermon Abin makes at the church playing out in full.  It could have been trimmed down and not really damaged the storyline, but played out in full it gives us a chance to get under the skin of Abin, and see exactly where he is misguided, and how he has mis-interpreted the very words he preaches.  It is impotant to notice that whilst the church and followers are decorated with crucifixes - a sign of the Christian belief, and showing them as followers of Jesus - Abin seems to preach Old Testament ideas and scripture more than anything else. A fire and brimstone preacher, and not a forgiveness and cheek-turning one, far from the teachings of Jesus (who said atheists are uneducated?)

The whole film is shot in a very different manner than we have seen Smith make films before.  Smith himself has generally favoured a static frame shot over any dramatic camera techniques (and is his own worst critic on this matter, as displayed on the Dogma DVD commentary).  However, with Red State he utilises various techniques, cuts, close-ups, pans, and steady-cam shots.  The steady-cam in particular is used well to catch the intensity of chases through the compound (the technique involves strapping a camera rig to an actor so they are the center frame, with everything moving around them, and can be demonstrated by viewing the marvellous scene from Mean Streets when a drunk Harvey Keitel swaggers through a club to the tune of Ricochet Biscuit at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQz32DByt5U ).

In this small film (running at a tight 88 minutes), Smith has really grown up and shown what he is capable of as a director.  Curiously he has also, recently, commented on his desire to retire from film-making after his next film.  It would be a shame if he did just as he got really interesting.