Red State -
I remember a few years ago when Smith first talked about doing this film my interest was peaqued. Could the filthy mouth director pull off a horror film? Over the years I've followed the development of the film closely so I was particularly eager to see it. It was released on iTunes and VoD today, so naturally I had to pony up the $10.
What you've heard is true. This is not your typical Kevin Smith film. Going in without knowledge of who directed it, you would probably never get to Smith. This is in no way, shape or form a comedy. Other than the opening in which Smith indulges in a licentious setup to get into the thick of things with the Cooper clan, he doesn't come close to his usual shtick. This is a gritty, brutal and unforgiving film. It's hard to pinpoint it's genre. It's not quite a horror, but not really a thriller either. It's more a dark fable than anything.
While I really enjoyed the film, it was far from perfect. The plot is a bit stringy, and Smith opts to use heavy exposition rather than letting us really get to know the Cooper family. The narrative is a little sloppy, and plot points seem to disappear. A lot of people die. They die in a very matter of fact way. I love this hyper-real, almost surreal handling of the violence, but wish that it had more emotional impact. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time spent with the characters and the plot jumped around too much for this to really take a hold. With a bit less hand holding exposition, and some more time spent getting to know this family, it could have been a a truly emotionally charged experience.
Besides the content, this film differs from Smith's previous work because of the look. Normally Smith is known for his minimalism. Clerks was shot in black in white, with virtually no camera movement. While he has expanded upon this gradually throughout his career, this is the first time where he involves the camera in the story telling. For the most part I appreciated what he and cinematographer David Klein were able to do. Overall it looked slick. There were a few scenes where they went overboard with the handheld camera work however, and it really wreaked havoc on the effectiveness of the scenes. It's nice to see Smith branching out with camera, but reining it in a little would have been nice.
The crowning achievement of this movie is the acting. Both John Goodman and Melissa Leo were fantastic in their roles. However Micheal Park steals the show. His unsettling performance as Abin Cooper was absolutely captivating. With his gruff, completely insane, yet somehow restrained portrayal of the demented pastor is reason enough to watch the movie. Smith was equally enamored with Parks and gives him plenty of material to chew on. I'm pretty sure I could watch another 90 minutes of just Abin Cooper giving a sermon and I'd be perfectly happy.
It was apparent, and Smith has admitted, that he was emulating Quentin Tarantino making this film. He doesn't quite reach the level of polish as Quentin, but it was a stunning jump in a new direction for Smith. He has clearly shown he can be a versatile writer and director. This is a chilling portrait of a fundamentalist cult that never wandered into the territory of a one dimensional parody. The Cooper family was a complex character in it's own right and I applaud Smith for how he handled this material.