Red State

A version of this review appeared in The Age, October 13, 2011.

This grim horror-thriller marks an intriguing comeback for slacker auteur Kevin Smith, whose films since Clerks (1994) have been of decreasing interest for anyone aside from his most committed fans. The opening scenes are in Smith's familiar, scabrous vein: teenage Jared (Kyle Gallner) arranges to hook up with an older woman he's met online, and invites his friends (Michael Angareno and Nicholas Braun) to get a piece of the action. On the evening of the rendezvous, they cross paths with the viciously homophobic Pastor Abin Cooper (Michael Parks), evidently modelled on the notorious Fred Phelps. For ten minutes of screen time they sit tight while Cooper preaches a seductive, well-modulated, utterly poisonous sermon to his flock; it's a mesmerising sequence, probably the best of Smith's career.

As the fundamentalists come under siege, the narrative keeps changing focus – partly because Smith has never had a particular gift for plot construction, and partly because he seems bent on inducing a maximum of moral discomfort. Nobody is especially admirable (including the sole significant gay character) and much of the bleakest satire is aimed at the US government. In the end Red State is less of a departure than it first appears for a director whose films have always centred on language and debate, and whose relish in the obscene has rarely masked his native puritanism. Philosophically, the film is a muddle – which is no surprise given the range of Big Issues that come into play. But too much ambition is better than too little, and a terrific cast including Melissa Leo and John Goodman helps bring all the rhetoric to life.