Red State on Blu Ray

Red State unfolds in a small town dominated by a fundamentalist preacher, Abin Cooper. It tells the story of three high school boys who, on their way to an internet arranged meeting with a woman, end up crossing paths with Cooper. The encounter sets into motion a series of events that causes all hell to break loose.

Disclaimer: I first saw this film at the State Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan during the Red State USA Tour, and the first section of this review was written in March right after I saw the film. You'll notice that it ends with me saying no one could review Michael Park's performance after a single viewing. So tonight, with Blu*Ray in hand, I pick up the second viewing, plus get to see all the awesome special features. Here's the DVD, let's all go inside.

To sum it up briefly and what would happen if the Coen Brothers directed a Quentin Tarrantino script? Probably something similar to Red State.

Let's start with the easy part of this review. Visually this is NOT a Kevin Smith film, it's pure cinematical gold when it comes to how it looks, which is a surprise to anyone that has ever seen any other Smith film. Done on a $4 million dollar budget, this looks like it could easily have been a $10-15 film based on production values, they definitely got the bang for their buck.

Casting wise the film hits it's mark with not a single cast member being a letdown in their role, there is no one that I would think to re-cast, my only complaint is with Kevin Pollack, but if I were to elaborate at all it would ruin a major plot point so I can't. Suffice it to say that it's not his fault, it's the character.

Moving on to the film as a whole, it was disjointed at times, but overall a solid B. The only sticking part to me personally was the sermon in the middle of the film, it drug on a bit too long for my liking, but that could have been more the theater I saw it in, the sound system wasn't the greatest, people near me were loud and I had trouble hearing some of what he was saying, making me lose interest in the scene. Still it seemed to drag on, but the pacing and the story for the first act and the third act were phenomenal. I don't think that you can call this a 'horror' film in the traditional sense, though tonally that is the best category I can think of except maybe quasi-reality.

There are some very funny moments, a few scary moments, and a lot of moments that are just simply tough to process as an audience member. Ralph Garmin gave a fucking eerie performance in a non-speaking role as Caleb, his eyes simply gave me chills. John Goodman was scary good as ATF agent Joseph Kennan. Stephen Root basically played the character he had played in True Blood, just as a cop instead of a vampire, his death scene was my favorite death, and quite ironic in the way it happens. Michael Parks was astounding as bat-shit crazy Abin Coopin, it would be criminal for me to attempt to critique him after having only seen the film once.

This film, unlike other Kevin Smith's flick will not enter the cultural zeitgeist. His best films in no particular order, Clerks, Dogma and Chasing Amy all have made deep impacts into pop culture, his 'lesser' films wouldn't even be remembered by most except that he is so willing to openly discuss his failures. Though I don't think he's made a bad movie, just a few not as good as his others.

This is his greatest film, from a film making standpoint, it's visually pleasing, has many action actions and is often hard to tell that he wrote or directed it. That's a good thing though, he's grown up as a film maker, and its sad to say that he's only got one more project, two more flicks in total before he heads off to retirementville or podcast land.

Even as messy as the overall story is, there are elements of this film that are wonderful. The acting is nothing short of mesmerizing; the editing of action sequences is superb and the setting of the Christian compound is frighteningly authentic. Kevin Smith even scores points for ambition. This is a film that he personally financed and is also possibly his first movie with subtext. While the subtext is still more overt than most, it has some insight into the dichotomy between faith in religion vs. faith in government.

Red State is not perfect, but it is fairly original. In a time where everyone relies on shock value, Red State actually has genuinely shocking moments. I don’t see die-hard Christians loving this film, but if you have malleable religious beliefs or at least possess the ability to separate fiction from reality, you may not hate it.

Special Features include:

• "The Making of RED STATE" Documentary
• "RED STATE of the Union" SModcasts
• The Sundance Speech with Introduction by Kevin Smith
• A Conversation with Michael Parks with Introduction by Kevin Smith
• Deleted Scenes with Introductions by Kevin Smith
• Trailers with Introduction by Kevin Smith
• Poster Gallery with Introduction by Kevin Smith 

Fryday Anyone?

   I fully expect most of you to not get the title unless you are fully entrenched in pop culture, and also listen to the Hollywood Babble-On Podcast, hosted by Ralph Garman and Kevin Smith. Be that as it may, it makes me laugh, so deal with it.
   Yes you guessed it, I am blogging about the Rebecca Black song "Friday" and not ironically but purposely posting this on a Friday, as you see, I'm not really very witty, I should have done the ironic thing and posted this next Tuesday.
   First a brief history, Rebecca Black is a 14-year old girl with slightly wealthy parents. Yes I'm assuming there, but hey they put out $4,000 but their supremely untalented daughter to record a song. What it boils down to is that the girl has no talent, and the song was written by this company for her in about 10 minutes, but like most popular songs it has a somewhat catchy hook.
   Social media went nuts a few months after this song, and its accompanying music video were uploaded by Shoutfactory to its Youtube stream.  Even with all of the autotuning going on, the girl still sounded dreadful, but she managed to get about 100,000 views, which is quite impressive for a then 13-year old girl who is not famous and has no talent.
   Then in March of this year, Daniel Tosh discovered the dreadful song.  He posted about it on his blog. Tosh has a lot of followers, they clicked through and the song blew up. She started getting hits in the millions on the youtube video that had since been moved to her own personal account. At least her parents were smart enough to buy the rights to the music and the video included in that $4,000 price.  The song also became available on ITunes and sold about 40,000 downloads within a week.
   I just don't see why everyone picks on her so much.  She's managed to become famous, made some money and even got to be part of a Katy Perry music video.  If you don't like her music, simply don't listen. For me, I'll be listening each Friday, and attempting to hear the song in Ralph's "FRYDAY" girl voice.
   What do you think, should people let it go and let her move on? I mean come on she's only 14. If you want to blame someone, blame Daniel Tosh, he's the one that made the world aware of her existence.

   Please feel free to follow me on twitter @NHDaveH or check out my Facebook page. 

Stoke Me a Clipper, I'll be back by Monday!