Film review - Red State

As a mega mental fan of Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse films, seeing Red State is a strange experience. It goes without saying that this is unlike any film he’s made before, but in many ways it is unlike any film anyone has made before.

The story begins with three desperate teenage boys answering an online ad by a woman willing to have a four-way. After some awkward small talk with the lady (Melissa Leo) and some drugged beers, they awake to find themselves held captive by a bizarre church which wants to punish them for their sins.

So far, so Hostel. But this isn’t another torture porn film per se, firstly because the violence isn’t the film’s raison d’être, and secondly because it soon becomes clear that no horror clichés will help you anticipate the plot. You see, this is a satirical message film about the loony Christian right, inspired by the kind of congregations that want to burn other people’s holy books just for the publicity – the kind of people who get followed around by Louis Theroux.

Melissa Leo enraptured

In this case, the church is led by Abin Cooper (Tarantino fave Michael Parks), a snarling, sneering, singing, sermon-ing (that should be a word) patriarch who has been holed up in the woods his whole life and doesn’t take kindly to our modern ways. He and his family believe we are reaching the end times. So when the Feds come calling (led by John Goodman), they are happy to pull a Waco and go to glory in a hail of bullets.

Red State’s genre shifting and strange plot trajectory make it an engrossing watch. The great performances help – Parks is a believable and charismatic monster, Leo is wonderfully stoic and creepy, and Goodman is at his deadpan best as a sad-sack ATF agent. Perhaps most impressive and surprising is Kerry Bishé as Cheyenne, the eldest of Abin’s grandchildren. Last seen in the ill-fated final series of Scrubs, Bishé is just radiant on screen. Confusion, fear and determination are alive in her eyes.

The violence is relentless but not over-the-top. Like the whole of the film, it is very 70s in aesthetic – lots of red blood on brown backgrounds. Photographed by long time collaborator David Klein, it really is Smith’s best looking film to date.

The writing confirms what all his fans know but which might have escaped some critics: Kevin Smith can be serious when he wants to be. But not for very long, as funny moments keep popping up Unsurprisingly the humour is a lot darker than in his other films – think The Wire rather than Walt Flanagan. Although there could have been some trimming (the sermon scene definitely goes on too long), this is interesting, thoughtful work.

Smith has stated that this will be his penultimate film, which is a shame. Worn down by the battering he received for Jersey Girl (a sweet film which was the victim of circumstance – though not a patch on the similarly themed Jack and Sarah) and Cop Out (which was just bad), he’s going to concentrate on his internet radio business and whatever else takes his fancy. With Red State he’s put these ghosts to bed and done himself proud, which I think was really the point.