BY MIKEY MIGO
Red State was better than I expected. In fact, I enjoyed it. If you asked me right after or even two days after seeing it if I liked it I’d have told you that it “wasn’t that good”. It’s not GREAT. I’m a Kevin Smith fan from way back. Dude is awesome and has provided me as much entertainment and enjoyment as any filmmaker has. I love Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy(still his best), Dogma, Strikes Back, Jersey Girl(yeah, that’s right), Strikes Back, Clerks 2, the cartoon, the “Evening With” stuff, and pretty much everything. I’ll admit it right now. I’m a fan boy. I know my Smith-isims and I’m not ashamed of that. I know he’s not the bestest ever and he’s not for everyone. But for who I am, what I laugh at, and what I connect to, Kevin Smith’s work speaks to me. When I first heard about him doing a horror movie I was weary. It seems like a cop out. For some reason it seemed like he was taking the easy route. People make so many disposable horror movies and bad horror movies that it’s easy to compete. It’s sure as hell a lot easier to put out a “smart indie horror movie” in a DIY atmosphere than a profit gaining comedy movie meant for the masses. If Red State was made after Chasing Amy it would have been way more impressive. It’s almost like he did this thinking “Apatow isn’t making horror movies… I should do THAT!” I sound like a dick about this, but this is how people think and I think it’s in the back of all Smith fan’s minds. We’re fans of him for certain reasons and how crazy and bad ass his horror movies are is not it. That said, I think everything I just spewed was nonsense. I feel like he did make this movie out of pure intentions and from a real place. It shows. It’s a really good indie horror movie.
The movie is basically about that crazy protestor Cult/Church, just a crazy gun-toting version. Some kids end up caught by this crazy church and the cops show up and they have a stand-off. It’s like that whole Waco, Texas thing from back in the day. Like I said, when I first got done with this movie I didn’t really like it. It felt lighter than it should in some spots and overly heavy in others. The opening classroom segment felt like a cheap device to set up the story and the last five or ten minutes felt REALLY tacked on. I felt like he has a really good idea but didn’t have a good way to get into the idea or a good way to get out of it. That’s pretty much the case here. I won’t spoil it though, but to me it felt a little weird. I knew John Goodman and Melissa Leo were in it, but for some reason it felt like it was being presented to me as an “unknown actor” project. To be fair, I don’t think it was ever said THAT way, but that’s what I was led to perceive. The cast is a who’s who in TV right now. Goodman and Leo were on Treme together, Anna Gunn is on Breaking Bad, Matt L. Jones is a Breaking Bad guy, Kevin Alejandro is on True Blood, Stephen Root was on True Blood and is in everything else, one of the “g-men” is the dickhead comedian from Mad Men, and then there are others. It’s a HBO/AMC casting love fest. I’m a TV nerd so I noticed this right away. Intentional? I wonder. That’s not really a complaint, but I was expecting more new faces. I’m nitpicking. Something just didn’t sit right with me.
A few days later and I’m officially saying I enjoyed it. It had to sink in. In my venting of the movie, I told a friend “this is Kevin Smith trying to make a Tarantino movie or a Cohen’s brother movie”. I’ll be honest. It still feels that way. I’m all about him trying new things and reinventing himself, but this movie felt like it was like him putting his own flavor on someone else’s kool-aid. I did like it though. Dammit, I know I sound like a dick in this review. The main preacher is played by Michael Parks. There is a sermon scene that I found myself getting goosebumps during because of how intense the dude way. He owned the role and did great with it. That’s one HUGE plus about this movie. The more I got away from it, the more I thought about Park’s work here. Another aspect is the surprises. There were seriously points where I couldn’t have predicted the next move for the life of me. Shit just came out of nowhere and piled up. By the end, things are surreal as hell. I have more critical things to say about the movie, but it’s just me overanalyzing this movie. I’ve been groomed to over-analyze and get my “fan boy on” when it comes to Smith’s movies over the years. This is honestly one that I’ll probably watch one more time before avoiding in the future. It wasn’t as bad as I fear I’m making it sound, but it just wasn’t that good. I still can’t put my finger on it. This has the be one of the most incoherent reviews of all time. This movie just makes me lost for words. Seriously, it’s a baffling! That said, go see this movie and make up your own mind. C+
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