Red State – Review

The nation was in shock when Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church protested the death of Matthew Shepard, who was beaten to death for being gay. Homosexuals are their #1 target as they travel nationally to picket the funerals of gay victims of murder and people who have died from AIDS. They honestly believe that gays are the cause of the tragedies of the world and think homosexuality should be a capital crime. Leave it to Kevin Smith, fresh off a critical chain-whipping with his last movie Cop Out, to use this hot button topic as a springboard for his first saunter out of his comfort zone of making comedies.

Three horny teens receive an online invitation for sex that makes hooking up on Craigslist look like child’s play. They meet up with an older woman at a trailer park, but she is no lady of the evening as she drugs the boys drinks and brings them to the ultra-conservative Five Points Church. It is here that her husband, Reverend Abin Cooper (Michael Parks), spits vile verbage from his tongue as he teaches his congregation, children and all, that the good book states that homosexuality is the ultimate sin, and that fornication of any kind, even if you are straight, is not to be tolerated.

The local sheriff sends out his deputy to scope out the compound to look for a car that sideswiped his vehicle earlier in the night – he was busy receiving a blowjob from a man on the side of the road – and is shot to death for doing his job. The Reverend knows of his wicked ways so ATF agent Joseph Keenan (John Goodman) is brought in as back up (think Waco, Texas) and he has strict orders, ones that he doesn’t necessarily agree with, to take down the “terrorists” – hostages, the kids, the whole lot.

Kevin Smith allows his actors to deviate from the script and by having faith in his cast, there might be a few Academy Award nominations coming their way. Michael Parks is downright chilling in a numbing performance as the cold Abin Cooper, a David Koresh type who is so full of hate that he makes murderers out of his followers, going so far as killing an innocent teen by wrapping his head in cellophane and shooting him. What makes him and his cult so frightening is people like him are real. Look no further than your local abortion clinic where religious extremists picket the facility spewing hate on a daily basis, and on some occasions, they shoot the doctors who are providing women their legal right to choose.

While there are some side-splitting hijinks, due to Smith’s witty dialogue, it is meant as a juxtaposition to the intense and brutal, but not torture porn violence. While story has always been his strong side, the look of the flick is gritty lending realism in an almost documentary way – and proves he is no one trick pony. Other than a few hymns there is no score to be heard, which adds intensity by not giving you soundtrack cues to the impending drama.

Red State is by no means a heavy-handed movie that attacks Christians. It is an in your face look at fanatical sects that have been passionately teaching their ignorant beliefs for centuries. What is going on today with homosexuals is like a modern day cerebral take on the Spanish Inquisition, and it took someone with balls of steel like Kevin Smith to expose them for the clowns that they are by using the platform of  independent cinema.

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