Plot: When southern teenager Jared (Kyle Gallner) receives an invitation online for group sex from a mysterious woman, he invites his horny friends Travis (Michael Angarano) and Billy Ray (Nicholaus Braun) to attend. The party soon goes south however when Jared and his friends are taken prisoner by the ultra conservative, gay hating Five Points Trinity Church, led by the twisted Abin Cooper (Michael Parks). Before long Jared, Travis, and Billy Ray are in a fight for survival--and God help them if they fail.
Review: Red State rocked me to my core. There's no simpler way to put it than that. Harrowing, well written, occasionally over the top, and dripping with tension, Red State is a scathing social commentary on how the ultra religious right in this country can warp the Bible's words to promote their own hate filled agenda.
I'm still trying to reconcile the fact that Kevin Smith (yes THAT Kevin Smith) directed this movie. I mean this is the guy who brought the term "snowball" into the sexual act lexicon and who's famous for writing the line "You never go ass to mouth." A director who made his bones doing comedy, Smith nevertheless succeeds in the thriller/horror department. The pacing is rapid and barely stops for breath. Red State is meant to be outrageous and overwhelm the audience on a visceral level, and the pacing reflects that. The film's extreme nature is meant to parallel the extreme nature of the radical religious right in America.
In addition to directing, Smith also wrote the script. Smith has always had a keen ear for dialogue and Red State is no exception. He handles the profanity laced verbiage of the high school teenage boy and the scripture laced tirades of a demented preacher with equal success. Smith has always been good at crafting a well made and heart felt comedy but it was nice to see that he can write and direct scenes of tension that are on par with anything I've ever seen on film.
But a script is only as good as the actors portraying the characters and thankfully Smith cast some good ones to go along for the ride. Academy Award winner Melissa Leo lends crediblity and her considerable acting talent to Sarah, Abin Cooper's daughter. It is fascinating to see Sarah be a doting mother and supposedly God fearing woman one second and then a violent killer sporting a machine gun the next. John Goodman also succeeds as ATF special agent Keenan, a man assigned to monitor the Five Points Trinty Church (based on the real life Westboro Baptist Church) for illegal gun activities. A conflicted man, Keenan is faced with the horrific task of executing his superior's orders against the Cooper Homestead or following his conscience.
Michael Parks however steals the show as the diabolical Abin Cooper. Every scene he's in is beyond captivating, especially the somewhat lengthy sermon he gives when we are first introduced to him. Cooper is a master orator capable of twisting the words of God to suit his needs and control his followers. What makes Cooper so fascinating as a character is in fact his ability to manipulate. It's almost Machiavellian. Even more impressive is how the sermon starts out somewhat normal and then degenerates into a hate filled diatribe that ends in the brutal murder of a kidnapped homosexual man. It was like watching Hannibal Lecter without the pension for cannibalism.
Kevin Smith's Red State has stayed with me several days after watching it. The ending was equal parts horrific and hilarious. Perhaps the best thing I can say for the film is that it makes you think and that's really the goal of any good movie whether it's intentional or not.
Without question Kevin Smith's Red State is an important film for the 21st century and next to Clerks, his best film ever.
My Rating: 9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment