Posted on: November 18, 2011 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

I must admit; after Clerks 2, I had not watched any of Kevin Smith’s films. I loved the View Askew universe, and I believe that my expectations of eir work as a filmmaker would mar any further titles that ey did. We were lucky enough to receive a copy of Red State from Lionsgate, and I believe after watching it that this represents Smith’s strongest film to date.

The film is messed up; Red State surrounds what happens to a trio of youths and their gradual absorption into a crazed cult. What becomes of the boys and the Five Points Trinity is the crucial point of the film, and Smith’s creation of characters just makes sense. There seems to be more vitality to the cast of Red State than in similar films. The metric that various players have to calculate makes the film that much more tense as it nears its zenith, while viewers will be on the edges of their seats to see how the film concludes.

Lionsgate has added a number of featurettes to the DVD and Blu-Ray editions of the film. This means that there is a full documentary that looks behind the curtains at the creation of Red State, along with different SModcasts that focused on the film. Of course, there are a number of more traditional featurettes here – deleted scenes, the different trailers released for the film, and the original speech that Smith made at Sundance. Red State is not comedy fare, and it shows Kevin Smith as someone that can move free from both comedy and romcom as a director. I was a little antsy about this film at first, but Red State has to be on anyone’s top of 2011 list.

Rating: 9.3/10

Red State (DVD) / 2011 Lionsgate / 88 Minutes / http://www.lionsgate.com

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