Red State Review…

Just finished watching Red State and to be perfectly honest, while Kevin Smith calls this film a horror movie, I am inclined to disagree with his assessment. While the movie has some horror film elements along the lines of Deliverance or Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the film its self fails to build up the necessary suspense needed to truly function as a horror film. What we have here is instead, a critique and satire of both the extreme right Christian churches and cults common in the USA and the government’s handling of those organizaations. The film its self is a strange mix and match of quality acting and mediocrity and at times presents some of Kevin Smith’s best work as a director while also showcasing just how little he has changed as a writer. One particular scene comes to mind to demonstrate this as three agents of the ATF engage in a conversation that combines a very impressive and thought provoking story about a man and his two dogs from childhood and comments about coke can size male anatomy in a prison setting being used in a very ‘ironic’ way. As far as the writing is concerned, it is these moments of immaturity that hurt a film that could be amongst his best written and leaves it somewhere in the middle of the pack.

As for directing, this is by far his best film. The cinematagraphy is fantastic and the movie is done in such a stylish manner that one would not believe Kevin Smith was behind the film. The climatic scenes are particularly engaging as he keeps the action and the story visually flowing without allowing congestion to take over. Overall, I would say that this film is probably the biggest step Kevin Smith has taken as a writer or director since Jersey Girl or possibly even Chasing Amy though it has more in common with the former’s feeling of being a somewhat incomplete film than the latter’s brilliance. In the end, this movie could have been about ten minutes shorter because a lot of what was included in the film was misexecuted and I think it suffers from the writer/director not knowing how to end the picture or to properly develop the story. I would say this film is a 6/10.