Randy here with a review of Kevin Smith’s Red State, along with a Q&A with writer director Kevin Smith and special appearance from co-star Ralph Garman!
After selling out the first three days of screenings at the New Beverly Cinema during it’s weeklong run to qualify for Academy Awards, word went out that tickets were still available for a 6:30pm screening(9pm was already sold out) last night.
Still gainfully unemployed, very nearby and wanting to see what all the fuss was about, I took a chance over the hill into Hollywood to try and grab a ticket. The fabulous Julia handed me my ticket and in I went!
RED STATE Poster
MOVIE REVIEW
Red State stars Michael Parks, John Goodman, Melissa Leo, Michael Angarano and Ralph Garman. According to the press release: “RED STATE tells the story of a group of teens in Middle America who receive an online invitation for sex, but soon encounter fundamentalists with a much more sinister agenda.”The fundamentalists of the film are the members of the Five Points Church led by Pastor Abin Cooper living in Cooper’s Dell and are confronted by ATF agents. This is about as much as I knew going into the film.
Red State is not like any Kevin Smith film I’ve seen!
And he WANTS it that way!
Early on, I thought that the film was looking a little more amateurish than even the limited budget led me to believe. But that changed as we got deeper into Cooper’s Dell and met the members of the Five Points Church. There is a compelling darkness that pervades the film and it takes the form of Michael Parks’ Abin Cooper.
Abin Cooper is the familial leader of the church, referred to as either daddy or granddad. He is charismatic, folksy, charming and quite loving of his family. But he has no tolerance for the wickedness of the world as he defines it. Michael Parks’ performance is what holds this film together. If you can’t understand why the other characters would go along with such madness, then you’ve lost your audience. But in Park’s performance, you can see why people would follow a man like Cooper, to do things you otherwise wouldn’t. Cooper gives his people the “answers” to why the world is darker and depraved than it should be, no matter how crazed that may be. Abin Cooper is the madman who you can’t take your eyes away from but should. Michael Parks simply nails it.
And his opposite is embodied in John Goodman’s ATF Agent Keenan. He is the man behind the badge, a voice of reason behind a symbol of the power of federal government. Keenan is the one man who is going to try and keep things from escalating. But his way is not going to happen. Goodman brings a feeling of weariness to the part that I wasn’t sure about at first. But what comes through is a man who is trying to be better than the people he works for but experience has already taught him that he’ll lose. He balances the madness of Parks’ Cooper.
As the tension and violence escalates, I got an interesting vibe from the film. Something like Night of the Living Dead meets The Devil’s Rejects. And I really dug that feeling because it’s not safe. Everyone is in danger in Red State and it likely that most (if not all) of these people aren’t going to make it to the end credits. I love that feeling!
It is pretty obvious what Kevin Smith thinks about religious extremism of any denomination, let alone the kind that use the Bible as a justification for pouring forth hate into the world. They are fools, demagogues and madmen. Smith lays this down with a fairly heavy hand. Subtlety is rarely a part of his work (though it is there in things like Dogma, a personal favorite of his films).
What I did not expect from Smith was the fact that this wasn’t just about showing everyone with any religious leanings as being stupid or insane. There are PLENTY of them to go around in the movie, whether they are cultists, sheriffs teenagers or the US government. But even in the midst of all this hate, there are moments of intelligence and compassion from all sides of the gunfire. It’s people, individuals that have the capability for consideration rather than the organizations that they are a part. It’s a feeling of hope in an otherwise bleak landscape. I wasn’t expecting that from this film or Kevin Smith. But I very much appreciated it.
Worth Paying: Evening Prices…if you’re a Kevin Smith fan.
Worth Making Toys? Well… I’d say no, but I think Kevin Smith like having action figures from his movies! Maybe make a Five Points Church playset?
Kevin Smith looking thoughtfully at nothing. (This is what I get for using my phone's camera!)
Q&A
It’s hard to really accurately recount a Kevin Smith Q&A for two reasons: because you tend to laugh a great deal and because it’s generously peppered with profanity.
Concerning the origin of the movie (one of the longest answers to a question I’ve ever heard-at least ten minutes!), Kevin said it was for two reason: a way to work with Michael parks after fifteen years and a way to fight the “evil” of the Westboro Baptist Church.
Michael Parks has been a staple of the films of Quentin Tarantino including From Dusk Til Dawn, Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2 and Grindhouse. As I’ve said above, his charisma is palpable and is one of the strongest things in the film. Smith was obviously a great fan of not only Park’s body of work but in the man himself. The man has lived a long life before even being an actor and it comes through in his work.
As for the second reason, I won’t go into the deeds of the Westboro Baptist Church or the Phelps family here. They don’t need any further publicity, let alone from me or a little toy website. I find their acts reprehensible and atrocious. But if you care to know, you can read about it HERE.
Smith pointed out that the WBC and the Phelps family had a Constitutional right to speak out. He believes that such rights need to be protected. Of course, that didn’t stop him from wanting to fight back against them.
“I wanted to put the monsters up on the screen and pull out their teeth Show them for the clowns they really are,” said Smith.
Kevin used the protests of the Phelps family to his advantage from the Sundance Film Festival premiere to a screening in Kansas City (he joking referred to them during the talk as his “marketing team”). At that Kansas screening, Kevin even invited them to see that film for themselves as well as give a review afterward to say their piece. And they did! Only a few minutes into the film, the Phelps left but Megan Phelps gave Kevin the reason for their leaving. And I’m turning it into the headline that Kevin Smith always wanted to put on the poster:
RED STATE
“Oh, this movie is filthy, Kevin.” –Megan Phelps
Smith concluded by encouraging those in the audience to go out and create something. To make art that is unique and personal and to do something that they enjoy. “Enthusiasm will attract people. You won’t have to find them, they’ll come to you.”
That’s a positive message that I can get behind. After writing the rough draft of this review, I worked on my own short film script. Something I’m hoping to shoot it in a couple of months.
As the audience left, I spoke briefly with co-star Ralph Garman about his part as Caleb in the film.
“It was something Kevin came to me and said I see you in this. He said he wanted to show me in a way that no one had seen me before. It originally had more dialogue to it but we removed it to give the character more of a sense of menace.”
And that it does, though I don’t know if he is the “Boba Fett of Red State”, as Kevin Smith stated earlier. I think he was cooler (though armor and jet pack wouldn’t have hurt) and sure as hell had a higher body count than the Mandalore!
According to Smith, “Red State hits Video-On-Demand for two weeks, starting 9/1. Then, Red State goes theatrical with a one-night-only beamed screening/Q&A/Podcast event. Then, Red State hits BluRay/DVD on 10/18.”
Thanks to the Staff of the New Beverly as well as Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman.
Be seeing you.
RANDY
