So theres a few other movies that I'd rather be writing about right now, some really amazing films have been on show at Sundance this week...Kevin Smith's Red State is not one of them, but it's the topic of the day. Here we go. I've been a Kevin Smith fan for years, I own most of his films on dvd, listening to plenty of smodcasts, and have even gone out of my way to see him live a few times. I also went out of my way to make it into this movie tonight because I was excited to see it. The only Smith film that I've not enjoyed in some sort of matter was "Cop Out", this one seemed like it could be another Chasing Amy moment, I love horror, I love religious films, I love cult films, this should have been an easy fucking sell.
One of the main problems is that this film just doesn't know what it is, and if it's director thinks this is a horror movie then he is just fucking delusional. It's almost like they started making a horror movie and quickly veered into this weird Waco shoot-out movie halfway. Except a Waco movie written by the man who created Clerks is just cartoon ATF versus cartoon radicals and "unfunny Kevin Smith dialogue" seems to be a phrase synonymous with verbal masturbation.
The film follows 3 high school students who contact a woman through an internet site who offers to have a three way with them. Since this is sold as a horror movie, it's no surprise that they are in for a trap and are about to be tortured. The big surprise though is instead of something happening they are tied up and caged then forced to sit through the longest boring un-settling sermon that cinema has ever found. Only one person is ever killed or tortured by the church in any sort of deliberate manner in this film, and that character has nothing to do with any of the main character, he is completely a minor character that only exists to die. At some point rather quickly one of our main characters stumbles across a cache of weapons, starting gunfights that last until the close of the picture. Somewhere in the middle of things an ATF agent played by John Goodman is inserted into things and the main story of the film is just dropped completely to become an irrational Waco picture where the government is just out to "kill them all" and the cult is the cartoony killing machines. None of this seeming to try to make any rational social or political commentary or at the very least entertain.
Sorry to go off on a tagent there, I was just trying to describe the movie and it's such a mess that I had to go into that many details. Now that may seem that I didn't like very much of the film and that is just not true. The stuff that works in the film is everything that Smith was already good at, there's a bit of comedy laced through the film and it all works. It might even work better in this context than in his other films because each comedic moment is so few and far between. There also is a big moment towards the end that I absolutely loved, Smith didn't go all the way with it, but still it's the sort of fun moment that is completely absent through the largely soulless picture.
Also the cast is incredibly good all around, I'm a big Michael Parks fan and he really gives it his all in this film, it's just a shame that the dialogue isn't there to back him up. Melissa Leo, Angarano, Goodman, everyone is friggen great. It's just so many moments don't work, a serious personal issue regarding Stephen Root's character where he winds up crying is executed so poorly I had to hold myself back from laughing and that was so early in the movie that it hadn't lost me yet. This movie practically had to spit in my face to lose me, and it did it.
It's not the worst movie ever, it's not even the worst movie Kevin Smith has made, it's just a disappointment. Alright I'm done, I don't want to talk about this anymore, this is depressing me.
Rav
