When Kevin Smith effectively picked up his ball and went home by refusing to hold press screenings for Red State, he almost certainly ensured that a certain type of mainstream film critic – the ones who have a massive sense of entitlement, consider themselves to be more important than the films they review and quite often don’t really like movies… you know the ones I mean – was guaranteed to dismiss his latest film out of spite, thus proving his point for him. It’ll be a pity if such cynical criticism puts people off, because Red State is quite extraordinary. I’ve not much cared for any of Smith’s work since Clerks – which I adored, but which I have a nagging feeling won’t hold up as well should I ever watch the DVD again – so when I say that this is his best work, that might not mean very much. Nevertheless, the film does make you wish he’d stopped wasting time on slacker comedies a long time ago.

Red State is sold as a horror film, but it really isn’t. It certainly starts out that way, as three horny teenagers make a date with a woman on an internet swingers site, and head out to get laid, hooking up with worn-down looking Melissa Leo in her trailer home. The next thing they know, they’ve been drugged and wake up caged and chained, as crazed preacher Michael Parks – who we’ve earlier seen leading Westboro Baptist Church-style ‘God Hates Fags’ protests at funerals – rants about the permissive, gay-friendly society to his band of what seems to be mostly related followers.

But things take a sudden turn as an ATF team led by John Goodman turns up to raid the compound, and a couple of misunderstandings sees one of the kids shot dead by a sheriff as he tries to flee, and a Waco-style siege / gun battle ensuing. It quickly becomes apparent that the three teenagers we thought were our lead characters are mere ciphers, and not really very important at all, and the film heads off into a whole different direction, as our sympathies switch from group to group, with the government officials determined to leave no survivors and the religious fanatics keen to shoot it out, hoping for the Rapture to arrive.

Red State is a pretty daring film – I can’t think of many movies that twist genre and story expectations so effectively, or that are willing to effectively write off the characters that we have been built up to connect with. Nor have I seen many movies recently that have a twenty-plus minute scene that is nothing more than one person talking, but that’s exactly what we get here, with Parks preaching his message and being compulsive viewing while doing so. In an age of nano-edits, it’s a brave move, as is the finale of the film, where plot points are cleared up by a bunch of people sitting in a room and talking – hardly the explosive finale that you might have expected. But the film works remarkably well, thanks to a bunch of incredible performances and assured direction from Smith, who you would think had been shooting films like this for years.

Hard to pin down (there are also elements of black comedy and Smith’s usual style of frat boy humour worked in here too), Red State is never less than fascinating, and rattles through the story at a ferocious pace. I can’t help feeling that a lot of people who have certain expectations will feel rather let down by this, but if you can approach it with an open mind, chances are you’ll be pretty impressed. Where the combative and self-destructive director goes from here is anyone’s guess, but I really hope people can get past his thin-skinned pettiness and appreciate what a remarkable film this actually is.

DAVID FLINT

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