Review: Red State

Red State (2011)

First off, don't make the assumption I did that this is about communists and possibly a cheap version of Red Dawn. It has nothing to do with that by "red state" they mean ultra-conservative. Had I actually momentarily paused on its netflix profile to see that Kevin Smith wrote and directed it I would have watched it much earlier.This is an incredibly difficult movie to review, and kind of a difficult movie to watch but its rewarding. The movie starts off focused on a couple of high school kids, and we get introduced to the antagonists, a cult-like group of religious fundamentalists modeled on the Westero Baptist church. The kids in the class are discussing how this group was protesting the funeral of a gay student who was found killed recently. The main three kids in the movie break for lunch and start talking about this website for casual sexual encounters. All the pictures of the girls on the website have their faces censored out with smiley faces so we aren't sure about who they are about to go fuck. They head out to go do this borrowing one of their parents' cars and accidentally hit another car on the way. This mostly serves to start upping the tension. Finally they get to the address and see that the woman they were about to triple-up on is a bit older than they expected, like approximately their mothers' age. I don't want to give away too much from here, but the real movie starts rolling from about here on. The next thirty minutes are some of the most tense, uncomfortable, and enraging that I have experienced watching a movie. I don't really want to describe everything that happens in too much detail, but the focus of the movie shifts to the members of the crazy church. Michael Parks does an incredible job at playing the leader of the church, and gives a long sermon filled with the kind of crazed, backward, ignorant, homophobic bullshit that is incredibly effective because you know somewhere out there are a lot of people who think that way. Meanwhile these high school kids are trapped there terrified by whats about to happen to them. The things they say in this made me uncomfortable in a way I don't necessarily want my entertainment to make me uncomfortable, but I kind of have to applaud the movie for doing it. I have to give credit to Kevin Smith's writing as well. At about the point where I was thinking of turning the movie off John Goodman comes in to save us all from breaking things to release the frustrated anger. He's sent in as an ATF agent to lead a raid on the church compound because they have a ton of guns and they shot a cop earlier. He isn't quite the shining hero, as he is under dubious government orders. Before I get even deeper into spoiler territory, because I really think you should watch this, let me start to wrap this up.

Red State definitely preys on several topical themes that are very well utilized to push peoples buttons. It is incredibly tense and borders on disturbing because of its realism. Its such a well put together movie that I have to recommend it, but I cant say it will be a very fun ride for most of it. As for the drink recommendation I had a couple ideas, either a gay themed drink to spite the antagonists of the movie or something playing on its ultra-conservative crazy pantsedness. I decided to just use a classic,

The Jim Jones
1 oz Vodka
1/2 oz Blue Curacao
1/2 oz Peach Schnapps
1/2 oz Sour Apple Schnapps
1/2 oz Razzmatazz
splash sprite
splash sour mix

Shake with ice, pour into a glass, or dixie cup. Drink the Kool Aid. You will probably need more than one to temper the outrage.