Red State
So here's my issue with this movie - The fact that crazy religious institutions like the Westboro Baptist Church exists gets me so fired up that I could care very little about the additional pseudo-political statement that Kevin Smith is trying to make - I just want to see these fuckers skinned, fried, and sodomized.
*ahem*
So I was pretty angry and riled up after watching
Red State, which I think was the point... But what bothers me more about it is that, in terms of myself, Kevin Smith is preaching to the fucking choir:
- I already think that crazy religious fuckwits like the Westboro Baptist Church are self-righteous evil fucks.
- I also agree that government can be just as over-zealous when it comes to addressing cults (Smith is very obviously emulating the horrors of Waco).
So, I watch a movie like
Red State and I see these points that Smith is making, but since I am already on that side, I feel as though I ultimately learn nothing new - I'm just utterly incensed.
So I'll try to give a review that is more objective:
- The movie is definitely intense.
- The direction is solid, especially the gunfight.
- The acting is incredible, specifically from Goodman (though not a big surprise) and the creepy Michael Parks
- The movie is definitely heavy-handed, though Smith does like to revel in his diatribes. Some scenes definitely went long.
- For the most part, the characters were two-dimensional, which bothered me a little bit - I with such an epic moral, it's a little disappointed that it's played out by caricatures.
- The end of the siege is one of the best resolutions that I've ever seen. Bloody brilliant.
In a nutshell, it's well-done but I didn't really fell like it covered new ground or did anything special for me other than piss me off.
Kudos to Smith for getting out of his usual mold. I think he did it well. Too bad that rumor has it his next movie will be his last.
3/5.