Red State

Rating: ****

Red State doesn’t look like a Kevin Smith movie, and of course I don’t mean that in a condescending, “I can’t believe HE directed this” kind of way, but rather a wow, “You’ve come a long way, baby” frame of mind.

With a few notable exceptions, Smith’s career and filmmaking oeuvre has been mainly directed towards arrested development (not the show) style humour about young men getting in situations both implausible and obscene while trading up-to-the-minute pop culture quips. Don’t get me wrong here, it’s suited the director well over the years, and has shown himself as a man that definitely knows his audience. To put this in terms of career optics, this is like when Steven Spielberg took on The Colour Purple and Empire of the Sun after establishing himself as the predominant popcorn dream weaver of his generation. In other words, a great leap forward as an artist.

Given its title, Red State, the film might seem on the surface to be a polemic of the Westboro Baptist Church. They’re a religious group led by a pastor named Fred Phelps that have gained infamy primarily for protesting the funerals of U.S. soldiers, calling it an indictment by God on America’s acceptance of homosexuality. Certainly Abin Cooper as portrayed by Michael Parks in the film, is a flaming bigot that uses The Bible and righteousness as his sword and shield, but I’m not sure how much politics plays a part in the subtext so much as “religious nuts” makes for compelling antagonists.

The tone in this respect reminded me of Smith’s past dalliance with commentary on modern religion: Dogma. You could call it a love the sin, hate the sinner approach to considering Christianity in the 21st century, religion can give you strength and comfort, but it also arms a lot of cooks with out there ideas and the will to enact them. But really no one in Red State comes off as particularly virtuous, not the church full of gun-toting Christians, or the government agents that eventually confront them in a Waco-esque showdown. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves…

After a simple title card, Red State begins like a typical horror movie: three teenage boys head out to the sticks to get laid by an older woman they’re chatting with online. But it turns out to be a trap by laid by the members of the Five Points Trinity Church led by Reverend Cooper, to lure morally bankrupt boys interested only in carnal delights, and teaching them a lesson with fatal severity. But just as Smith’s got you thinking that you’re about to watch Saw with a Left Behind twist, he swerves and brings in the ATF.

Void of Smith regulars like Ben Affleck, Jason Lee or Jason Mewes, the film’s Smithlessness is compounded. Fortunately the director leans on some excellent acting talent in the form of the aforementioned Parks, Melissa Leo as the most devout church member, and John Goodman, who’s looking pretty fit these days, as the head ATF agent. It’s mostly through Goodman and his scenes that Smith’s revered, and recognizable, skill with dialogue is utilized. It’s not often that a film can capture the spirit of morale-rotting, bureaucratic leadership, but Goodman’s Agent Kenman feels like a genuine middle man caught in a situation way over his head. Not to mention the fact that the script is able to do it without treating the characters as dumb.

What’s particularly impressive is how Smith is able to weave the various tones of the film into a single cohesive production that has elements of Tarantino, the Coen Brothers, Peckinpah, and even Smith himself. There are surprising moments of humour, and there are dreadful moments of violence. The one seems to flow into the other easily, creating a kind of benign though craven bloodlust in the audience. Each kill comes as a shock, and if someone that deserves their fate gets whacked, the audience reacts with cheers. But there are also some deaths that just make you gasp for a second and ask if that just happened.

Technically, the film represents a huge leap forward for Smith. The look is dirty and grimy, he uses jump shots in the editing and even crossing the line from time to time. Red State is also able to sell a feeling of claustrophobia and foreboding with bizarre POV shots and hand-held camera movements. If this is where Smith is going as a filmmaker, then it’s a genuine shame that this is his second to last film.

During his Q&A after this Toronto screening, Smith said that this film isn’t a horror movie, and he’s half right. This isn’t a horror movie in a way that will make you jump out your seat or gross you out with gore, but Red State is Smith’s horror movie in the same way that Antichrist was Lars von Trier’s horror movie: we see filmmakers stretching their hand and embracing one of the true genres made for directors and making it their own. Forget the hype, and the innovative way Smith is marketing this film by touring it. No matter how you see it, know that Red State is excellent no matter who made it and why.