- "Knock Knock!"- "Who's there?"
- "Anal Sex!"
- "Oh, it's Kevin Smith."
Summarized in these four lines lies the entire appeal Kevin Smiths has had ever since Dogma. Or Chasing Amy, dependent on how you want to look at it. Smith, once the auteur darling of an entire generation, the pastiche of Tarantino's slight political incorrectness and Linklater's skilled, dialogue based character pieces, has become irrelevant and has been a drag for over a decade. His detractors love to reduce his oeuvre to his most recent failure, the buddy-cop-comedy Cop Out with Bruce Willis, while actually neither Zack and Miri make a Porno, Clerks 2, Jersey Girl, two utterly despicable Batman comic-runs or Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back really managed to generate anything but yawns from an ever diminishing audience. Smith had respectively sold out, lost it or gone old in the minds of his fans. In this personal climate, one in which Smith was not only irrelevant but also became a living joke (as he was thrown off a plane for weighing too much), Red State seems not like a re-imagination as much as it is a call to arms, a destruction of everything that came before and probably the film that will endure in Smiths oeuvre.
Before I delve into the review, let me quickly sum up the scandal surrounding Red State's release. Smith released news of his film shortly before Sundance, where it would premiere. It was, in his own words, a horror film with a christian theme. Little to nothing else was known at that point. The film was self-produced, with no studio or production company involved. Smith brought his own team, friends and fans to the shoot, that allegedly cost around four million dollar. It was his vision, unaltered.
As Sundance approached, Smith released a disclaimer on his website, that no press tickets would be given out to review sites. Everybody who wanted to attend the premiere would be forced to get up at five in the morning, stand in row and hope that tickets would still be sold. This, Smith revealed, was due to the disastrous press reception of his previous films (although short sighted, a quite brave statement to hand out). There would be no press screenings. Just a premiere.
But even bigger news came when Smith announced that after the press screening, he himself would auction to rights for the film to the attendance. Again, nobody would be invited, all had to get up at five in the morning and get in line. Or send their employees to go get the tickets for them.
Thus, when the film premiered, not only was most of the US press attending (who had managed to get tickets), but also the big names of various studios and labels that wanted to get their hands at the rights for Red State. First tweets after the screening were mixed, speaking of strong performances, a 20 (!) minute sermon by leading actor Michael Parks and never ending shootouts. As the applause diminished, Smith took the stage and went on into a long tirade. Essentially, he called out to the press, mocking them for bashing his work in public, and spit continuous venom on the american studio system, in which stars were overpaid (20 million $ is around the standard fare for an a-lister alone, five times the amount of money Red State was shot with), scripts were hacked, the production was interfered by producers. And even once the film was done, the promotion would require large amounts of money to get a crowd into theaters who had no interest in this sort of film in the first place.
As the atmosphere in the theater got continuously worse, Smith left the stage to his producer, who would auction the rights. As he took the stage and asked for the first bid, Smith raised his hand: "20 Dollars!" - "SOLD!!"
Both in shock and awe, the attendance watched as Smith took the stage once again, explaining that he had fooled the attendance, that he himself would screen the film on a "tour" throughout the united states, without promotion or advertising it. He proceeded to spit a last few minutes of venom, then dropped the microphone to the ground and left the stage. I have included the entire Sundance bit below as a youtube video, if anybody is interested.
In the aftermath, Smith explained in a long post that his frustration about the studio system led him to the grotesque charade, that he wanted to proof that he would be able to not only make a good film without any studio funding, but also that he would succeed in making profit with the film this way (for the math: a film that cost 200 million has to make about 400 million to strike even, thanks to shareholders and PR getting their bits).
So, did Red State succeed? Is it a good film? Smith, by now, has his money back - everything that followed from a few months ago on is profit to him. As for the film itself - what follows now are slight spoilers of the plot. If you want to go in and see Red State unprepared (which could be compared to seeing Hostel unprepared), then stop reading here. All I can tell you is that Red State is a very good horror film with a very personal, important, socio-political message. For everybody else: go on.
The film opens with... anal sex jokes? Oh, Kevin Smith...
The opening ten to fifteen minutes are truly a drag, as our three teenage protagonists discuss hooking up with a woman one has found on the internet so they loose their virginity. Blah Blah Blah, some needless exposition later they find themselves in the clutches of what is a church under the steady gaze of pastor Abin Cooper and his family. Before I go on, one thing has to be noted: Michael Parks, who stars as Cooper, and whom most will know as Earl McGraw from various Tarantino ventures (really, pick your favorite, he is in a couple), is so good in here that he has to be nominated for an academy award. If he won't be, then this only tells so much about Kevin Smith pissing off the right people. He is, by far, one of the most outstanding villains in cinema and Parks is sure to finally be widely recognized as a truly daring and unique actor.
Parks' depiction of Cooper is both chilling and sympathetic. As he starts his (slightly cut down to about 10 minutes) sermon, we can't help but agree with various points the character makes, have to ponder if this guy really is all that evil, while right behind him a figure with a blanket over his body stands next to a cross. Smith succeeds in not only making us scared of these extreme, religious fanatics, he also provides us with good reason as to why Cooper is so dangerous: because he's got good arguments. He doesn't shout, he only needs to whisper to bring his followers to their feet.
Then the blanket is torn down. And then, the killings start. Although we have seen all these actors before - some of them in films, others in TV-shows; some we know the names off, others faint shadows of a role whose name we can't remember - nobody is safe. People are killed off in a matter of seconds, with no further ado. It makes for one adrenaline rush after the next, because, really - who knows what Smith is up to?
After a good amount of time, John Goodman is introduced as the leader of a special force unit that is assigned to take the Coopers down and the film slowly progresses from horror film into a dark neo-wester. After an extended shoot-out, he gets the order to take "everybody inside the house" out. The hostages, children - everybody. To which Goodman slightly objects, although the killing continues, until... well, until Kevin Smith uses one of the most stunning and baffling deus ex machina I have ever encountered in a film (quite literarily at that, also).
Nobody comes away safe - teenagers, hedonists, right wing christians, homosexuals, the police, executive and judicative. Smith does not target them individually - he targets ideologies. He targets the idea of one group to be superior to another. The belief system that one group has more right to do something than another. The idea that one ideology is the right one, that it is fine to betray (or worse) for a greater cause. Thus, he spits vitriol on every ideology, every believe-based system, every aspect of fanaticism, coming up with as bitter and cynical a film as one could be, summing up his own believes in the very last line spoken in the film before it cuts to unforgiving, pure black!
People will be pissed off! Many will not take the time to dig below the ideas present, and maybe will felt rub down the wrong way by Smith's approach in portraying his villains, whoever they may be. But first and foremost, Red State is the film to induce socio-political discussion, reflection and actual change! It's one of these films which, ten years from now, will be a big cult film with a steady following. If it wouldn't have been made by Smith, but by a newcomer, it would have been showered with praise already. In short: yes. He did it. He re-invented himself and came up with his best work yet.
Rating - 9/10
P.S.: Here is the full Sundance speech of Kevin Smith. Enjoy!
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