Jeff Vice (known as Jerk-Bot around these parts) from The Big Movie Mouth-Off had a chance to see Kevin Smith’s new picture up at Sundance. I was bracing for this interview, because Jeff was pretty outspoken about his anger on the last BMMO Podcast about the cancellation of press screenings for this film.
This is the full review, excerpted from a larger blogpost that Mr. Vice provided to X96’s Sundance Blog. He’s blogging the whole festival from there and I suggest you read him. We’ll be back on the Mouth-Off podcast and the show this week for the full Sundance recap.
Jimmy Martin, the other half of the Big Movie Mouth-Off, also reviewed the film for his home publication, SLUG Magazine. You can read his review here.
You can listen to the Sundance preview show here.
But without further ado: Jerk-Bot reviews
The most pleasant surprise of the festival has to be Kevin Smith’s already controversial “Red State,” which got protested Sunday night by a “street team” representing the wackjob Westboro Baptist Church group. Jimmy and I got up bright and early to check out a Monday morning public screening at the Park City Library.
You may recall that I was prepared to hate the film. Especially after Smith’s anti-media antics, including refusing to do press interviews and not allowing for a press and industry screening of his latest movie. Surprise, surprise, though … this is unlike anything the “Clerks.” and “Dogma” writer/director has done to date. None of his goofy cast of characters shows up. The dialogue doesn’t even sound like it came from his pen.
And as for the story and performances are concerned, this is easily Smith’s most accomplished movie. It helps that he has a first-rate cast (including Michael Parks, Melissa Leo, John Goodman, Kevin Pollak and Stephen Root), plus subject matter that he clearly cares about.
Once you experience “Red State,” you’ll understand why the Westboro group wanted to protest. It’s gutsy, blood-and-guts stuff … a successful melding of sex comedy elements (think “American Pie”), so-called “torture-porn” films like “Hostel” and satirical thrillers. If you thought “Dogma” was sacrilegious, you haven’t seen anything yet. Organized religion, governmental and law-enforcement agencies, the American education system, the middle class. Smith spoofs them all.
And sure, it’s occasionally heavy-handed. But you can’t shake it off easily. Especially not after seeing Parks’ on-fire performance as an Eternal Damnation threatening “holy man.”
Still, I was prepared to put Smith on the spot during a post-screening Q-and-A. I wanted to ask why he refused to promote and press screening such an obvious passion project. But he answered before I could even ask. Turns out he’s self-releasing the movie, under his own new production company (named for his wildly popular “Smodcast”).
He’s planning to “tour” the film in certain cities, beginning in March at Radio City Music Hall. These “tour stops” will also feature lectures and programming, much like his “One Night With Kevin Smith” events. And then, he’s mulling over an actual theatrical release in the fall. By which time he may have already recovered the reported $4 million production budget.
Love him or hate him, Smith is truly an original. And this is a really ballsy move on his part. I still hope he’ll do more press, since the film deserves a lot of discussion. It’s outrageous stuff, and something that needs to be seen and talked about by as many people as possible.
So this is me saying I’m sorry … at least to a certain degree … for my earlier, inflammatory comments, which included a cheap dig at the portly Smith. All is forgiven on my part. Even for his previous film, the awful “buddy cop” comedy “Cop Out.”
You can watch my (Swank’s) interview of Smith from Comic-Con here.
We’d also like to take this moment to publicly offer Smith help or advice about the self distribution angle. Clang! Boom! Steam! and I have released two films ourselves (Killer at Large and This Divided State, look them up on Netflix) and with the help of Jeff Vice we’re currently booking Sons Of Perdition, which is a great documentary about polygamist kids. We’re familiar with the world of self distribution and would like to help make Red State successful.