Review of “Red State”
By now, you know what you’re in for with a Kevin Smith film. People talk about stuff. Then they talk some more. Whether it’s a couple of slacker clerks in Clerks, or a couple of fallen angels in Dogma, it’s the Smith style, and he has developed a huge fan base that enjoys his dry comic dialogue. What then are we to make of Smith’s latest project Red State – pitched as a ‘straight horror film’? Kevin Smith doing horror? Well, Red State is horrible in plenty of places: an unruly story with an uneven tone, frequently dull, and more satire than fear or gore. And predictably, it has some very long scenes of people talking, as Smith pokes his pen at the religious right.
Set in a small town far from the clutches of government and media, the story opens with three young men on a wild mission to have sex with a woman they have met on-line. After drinking beer that has been laced, they wake up tied and bound in the small church of charismatic preacher Abe Cooper (Michael Parks), who has convinced his flock to kill ‘homosexuals’ who he blames for most of the world’s ills. Luckily for the three men, the police are looking for their car which was involved in a minor accident earlier that night, and quickly the heart of the story becomes a standoff between government forces – led by Agent Keenan (John Goodman) - and the radical sect who are armed to the teeth.
What makes this film ultimately boring is its complete lack of charm. Perhaps making the point that life is random and there are no good guys and bad guys when the bullets start flying, Smith tars all his characters with the same brush – these are cheerless folk one and all – particularly Agent Keenan, who spends much of his time on the phone talking to a superior we never hear or meet. Michael Parks as the mad preacher never seems completely convinced what his character is doing – although he does his best with a 15-minute monologue of mostly unnecessary exposition. What did keep me more interested were the occasional flashes of cinematic style – an odd tilted shot here, a moody camera move there - but, like the film’s story and message, they are inconsistently applied. Smith fans will probably forgive the film its faults – but might miss the lack of wit. For others it’s going to be a strange and uninspiring experience.
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