Sundance 2011—The Return (5)

Sundance Film Festival 2011*

Park City, Utah

Red State (2011)

Rated R

Kevin Smith’s Red State was one of the most controversial films at Sundance 2011. Smith, ever the class clown, entered a packed Eccles Theater describing outside anti-gay protestors as “fans,” and went to town mocking the protestors, even though his film honors their right to protest. If that wasn’t enough, Smith opened bidding on distribution rights for Red State before a crowd of potential studio investors, then, in some kind of rebuke to Hollywood establishment, reversed himself and declared he would distribute the film himself. OK.

Director/podcast guru Kevin Smith yucks it up at Eccles Theater before the debut screening of his first horror film Red State. (Credit: John Brown)

The film, talky and juvenile on the front end, takes on religious fundamentalism with an odd mix of horror (done well) and action (done equally well), that ultimately doesn’t live up to its full potential.

What it gets right is fantastic. Five deaths in the film are powerfully depicted and each drew startled reactions from the crowd. It’s a hard thing to do in a horror film, to make that many deaths mean more than a body count. And a scene of blaring trumpets stopped the film in its tracks (in the good sense) and for a moment I was off the map of my cinematic experiences and didn’t know what to think or how to react. It was a moment that skirted greatness, but doesn’t achieve it.

*Note: Since marvincbrown.com had not been created at the time of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, I decided to go back and repost these reviews and festival  items, which were catalogued elsewhere—mainly because I needed to get these reviews into my archives, but also because it was an enjoyable experience I’d like to share.