Three teenagers respond to an online posting to gang bang a woman out in the countryside. Before arriving, they side swipe a parked car where Sheriff Wynan (the fantastic Stephen Root) sits, engaged in a sexual act with another man. The teens get frightened and leave the scene, heading for the woman's trailer. Sarah Cooper (Melissa Leo) greets the boys, gives them beers and tells them to disrobe. Before they can get their underwear off, all three pass out and later, Jared (Kyle Gallner) wakes up in a cloth-covered cage in the Five Points Church where Abin Cooper (the always amazing James Parks!) is giving a sermon to his congregation about America's corruption, sinners, homosexuality and the "end times". Among the twelve or so people in the church are Sarah Cooper, her daughter, Cheyenne (Kerry Bishé), husband, Caleb (Ralph Garman) and a few children. After the sermon, the children are led out of the room and Abin identifies a man saran wrapped to the cross in the middle of the room as a homosexual they found in an online chat room. The crucified man is shot in the head and dumped into the crawl space below where we see the other two teenagers, Travis (Michael Angarano) and Billy Ray (Nicholas Braun) who are still alive but bound to each other with heavy saran wrapping.
Sheriff Wynan returns to the station and tells his deputy to locate the countryside for the teens' car. Just as Cooper is binding Jared to the cross, he notices the deputy driving up to the compound and goes outside to have a chat with him. Travis and Billy Ray (the other two teens) free themselves and try to escape. Billy Ray runs into a small rooom filled with automatic weapons, grabs one and faces the door. Caleb runs into the room and the two end up shooting each other. The deputy hears the gunshots and calls Wynan for back-up but is shot and killed. Cooper then picks up the dead deputy's radio and tells Wynan that if he comes near the compound, he will tell his wife about his homosexual affairs. Wynan calls Special Agent, Keenan (John Goodman) of the ATF to secure the compound and free the hostages.
This is where I will stop because the last fourty-five minutes (cir.) of the film are more intense than the first fourty-five.
Now it's time to wax the actor's cars: Michael Parks deserves to win an Oscar for his performance here as does John Goodman. Both actors shine through Kevin Smith's well-written dialogue. Intentionally, Parks allows you to hate him, and rightfully so, playing a character that seemingly has no other morals other than his religious doctrine and even that is askew (pun intended for you Kevin Smith fans). His sermon before the killing of the first man is filled with a strong venom, masked as a loving, caring preacher while making jokes and small talk with the children in between his "gospel" of contempt for the non-religious heathens. John Goodman shines through as the conflicted ATF agent who wants to do the right thing while following orders in fear of him losing his job - which everyone with a job these days can understand. Goodman is crass but sensible and is the most conflicted character in the film, despite the other character's dilemmas. Melissa Leo is also fantastic as the faith-blinded daughter of Cooper who does a great job of making you hate her, and believe that she is simply bat shit crazy.
Kevin Smith previously dabbled with Christianity in his 1999 film, Dogma and while it was a fantasy comedy, Red State does not take itself lightly...at all. This is a very heavy-handed film and while there are laughs, they are far and few between as the drama and action elements take over. This is Smith's first serious film and I use the word "serious" in the sense that the film itself is serious, dealing with serious subjects and people in realistic life and death dilemmas that the slap-happy comedy parody Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back or any other Kevin Smith films didn't have. It's not that I do not like any of Smith's other films. Far from it. It's simply that this is a different type of Kevin Smith film and he knew exactly what he was doing from the moment he put the pen to the paper or the hands to the keyboard. In my opinion, it is his best film by far and I am partial to the first Clerks.
Now onto the plot: While dealing with a sensitive subject such as religion, Red State makes you fear those who show their extremist religious beliefs to the audience and that is what is bound to (and has previously) gotten Smith a lot of negative publicity.
Remember, there is no such thing as negative publicity!
Even when Dogma came out in 1999, there were protests by people who haden't even seen the film and yet they were judging it because of it's subject matter. The radical religious (and non radical alike) usually say that only God can judge people, but these people are willing to judge a film that is about God. Ironic isn't it?
A hate group, concealing itself as a Baptist church, known for their stance that "God hates fags" protested Red State's Sundance premier. Obviously they haven't even seen the film, but if they did, they would find some striking similarities between themselves and those depicted on the screen. According to TMZ.com, the Westboro Baptist church spokesperson said, "God hates fags, God hates fag enablers, therefore God hates Kevin Smith."[1] I don't know about you, but I love Kevin Smith and feel he deserves every freedom to make a film like this if he wants to.
Red State handles the issues of faith and spirituality with an automatic rifle blast to the heart and the brain, making the viewer ponder their own beliefs and opinions about Catholic dogma and the people who take it too far. Intense, entertaining and thought-provoking, Red State is by far one of the best films of 2011 and Kevin Smith's second best (behind Clerks).
5 Raised Hands (Out of 5)
Red State is currently available on VOD via iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Vudu, Best Buy, Blockbuster, Comcast, Xbox 360, Zune, PS3 and any other VOD provider you can think of. Or just go to Cooper's Dell.
The Blu-ray and DVD will be released on October 18, 2011. Pre-Order it on Amazon:
Praise the Lord and Check Out the Trailer:
[1] TMZ.com
