Red State
★★★
(2012)
Kevin Smith’s most serious film to date, before the complete turn around which he has performed with Red State was probably, for arguments sake, Chasing Amy. Come on, it had a make up break up scene in the rain in it! Yes, of course, it was filled with dick jokes, sharp, over written purile comments and had Jay and Silent Bob in it, but there was definitely something bubbling underneath it all; A touch of heart perhaps, something John Hughes, beyond all of the black, lesbian, homophobic, Star Wars jokes and comic geek posturing.
At least after the cult, and still weirdly fantastic hit, Clerks and the terrible Mallrats it was a small signal of intent coming from a film maker of whom it was once said; “Kevin Smith’s style? He’s has no style, but that’s kind of his style.” After 10 years of trudging though some watchable but empty messes (Jay and Silent Bob Stirke Back) some complete piles of ooopsy (Jersey Girl) and a totally misjudged sequel (Clerks II) Smith has decided to pull a thorn from his side which has always kind of bugged him and put it on full, dangerous display. Red State tries to throw away every single scrap of Smith and leave just that thorn and, at this point in his career, it’s a move which could serve complete purpose.
Red State focuses, to begin with, on three young fellas (Michael Angarano, Nicholas Braun, Kyle Gallner) who may not at first seem out of place in the Smithiverse. Their attempt at setting up a threesome with an older woman (Melissa Leo) in her trailer ends up seeing them lured in to a trap and locked in the bowels of a fundamentalist christian church while the good Pastor and head freak zealot Abin Cooper (A mumbling Micheal Parks) rants an raves in a service above them.
What ensues for the remaining 70% of Red State is a pretty standard hostage film. The cops are outside shooting in, the captors are inside shooting out, people die, the police are pressured by their own superior and John Goodman (here playing the head of the tactical support group) gets to yell a lot and the whole thing gets loud and pretty messy. What could have been a real stand out film in a career not know for subtlety or depth Red State instead ends up lagging into the zone of the blunt, brutal and almost grind-house B action film, The casting of Micheal Parks and Tarantino’s praise all over the films advertising doesn’t help. In the end it ends up feeling as if Eli Roth wrote the set up, in all of it’s Hostel like brutality, Tarantino wrote Goodman’s lines and character and Robert Rodriguez cut the whole thing together in a week.
A departure it is and though not without it’s great moments (mostly from Parks and Goodman), sadly Red State seems intent on highlighting Smith’s love for charactature and viciousness through hails of actual bullets instead of verbal ones, without offering any interesting ideas on fundamentalism, the church or blind faith, something which even Dogma used to odd but often wonderful comic book effect.
As an action shocker, even with leads taken straight from Smith’s cohorts, Red State, admittedly works quite well but don’t expect any solid wisdom just yet from the man who ended his last film with a massive liquid poo joke.
