Red State

Last week I had the privilege to see Kevin Smith present a showing of his new film Red State. I'm going to try and be un-bias with my review, but anyone who knows me knows that I am a HUGE Kevin Smith fan. Also, in all honesty. I loved this movie.

Smith is touring the United States right now with his new horror film. Red State is his venture back into purely independent film making. He is self promoting the film through twitter, his podcast network, and a tour where he shows the movie and follows it up with a very funny Q&A. If you have ever seen any of the Evening With Kevin Smith DVDs you know how entertaining the man can be.

Before the movie started Kevin Smith took the stage to introduce it. He talked about how when you tour with a movie like this things happen that you would otherwise miss out on if you let some company advertise your film for you. He talked about his run-ins with the Phelps family from the Westboro Baptist Church, you know, the "God Hates Fags" nut bags (Haha, that rhymed!). They call Smith a "fag enabler," a title that Smith is very proud of. He said that's makes him like a gay pimp. Kevin told all of us about how he invited the Phelps crew into the theater to see the film at one of the shows, but they walked out 15 minutes in. After the movie, two former WBC members introduced themselves to Smith and were invited on stage to tell their story of leaving the church. Hear the audio of this on Kevin and Jen's podcast "Plus One" HERE. (It's episode 15.)

Kevin Smith and his crew counter protesting the WBC on Red State Tour.

Finally, it was time to start the movie. I don't want to give away ANYTHING about the film, but I have to say that it blew me away. This wasn't your typical dick and fart joke Kevin Smith stoner comedy.The suspense picks up pretty early in the film and DOES NOT let up until the end. Even when the scenes become more calm with Michael Parks's performance you still feel uneasy because Parks is so fucking good.

You won't miss Smith's comedy either because there are still plenty of moments that get a good laugh from the audience. John Goodman is responsible for many of these moments, especially towards the end. In fact the very last line of the movie gets a huge laugh. I'm the type of guy who was won over by Kevin Smith with Clerks and Mallrats, but it was so good to see him step into a new genre and do it well. Smith has announced that after Red State he only has one more movie in him, Hit Somebody. After that, he's retiring from film making. What a way to go out. Smith said "fuck it," to the industry. "I'm going to do this my way." Well he never ACTUALLY said that, but in so many words...

Red State will be released in October. I highly recommend that everyone goes to see it. Especially if you hate the Westboro Baptist Church, which I'm pretty sure everybody does.