Kevin Smith's Red State (2011)

Patrick Martin said:wrote a quick little review regarding the deep dives.
one of the better ones lately ☕

What exactly are you basing this "one of the better ones lately" claim on?
To me, the execution felt incredibly sloppy. It’s almost as if they built up these caricatures just to intentionally tear them down in the final act. Look, the premise is actually pretty solid—wrapping all those cultural and ideological wars in a layer of hypocrisy and sheer stupidity—but the pacing is all over the place. The impatience of the editing makes the whole structure feel incoherent while trying to juggle sexual culture, religion, and modern American politics. I mean, yeah, Parks, Leo, and Goodman basically carry the entire thing on their backs.
Then again, maybe I’m just biased because I’m still stuck on Smith's older films, which probably explains why I'm feeling so let down.

Jeffrey Brown3 said:What exactly makes you think this is 'one of the better ones lately'?
To me, the whole thing felt super half-baked. It’s like they spent the movie building up these caricatures just to intentionally tear them down in the final act. Look, the premise is actually pretty solid—all those cultural and ideological wars wrapped up in hypocrisy and pure idiocy—but the pacing is all over the place. Everything feels rushed, so the structure gets totally incoherent while trying to juggle sexual culture, religion, and all that modern American political nonsense. I mean, yeah, Parks, Leo, and Goodman basically carry the entire thing on their backs.
Then again, maybe I'm just stuck in my ways, still hung up on those older Smith films, which probably explains why I'm so let down.

The movie definitely has a beginning, middle, and end—you've got the setup, the sequence where things start falling apart, the climax, and the resolution—and the whole thing plays out in real time. Personally, I live for movies like that.

Throughout that stretch, it touches on all those "wars" you mentioned in your post, maybe even more effectively than those louder, more low-key movies tackling the same stuff.

Plus, there's irony and sarcasm woven through the whole thing in this really cool, modern way. Honestly, I have no idea where you're getting that vibe about it breaking down its own characters in the last quarter.🤷

For me, it’s straight-up horror, brutality, and shock value, and it hits you with that right from the jump.

Quoting:

I absolutely love this movie!

Quentin Tarantino

Look, we all know Quentin Tarantino knows how to make a hit,
but has anyone actually dug through Smith's old stuff? It seems like he mostly sticks to comedies.
Is any of it actually worth a watch?

Clerks (II) is easily one of my all-time favorite comedies! 🙏 Don't tell me you haven't seen it yet!? Everything Smith does is gold.

Everything Smith puts out is garbage. Just another sellout that people unfortunately fall for.

I mean, I’m nothing right now, but if God willing, I'll be someone. Honestly, if this movie is any indication of his sense of humor, then he's totally my kind of guy.

Patrick Martin said:I'm single right now, but I'd love to change that! I really dig his sense of humor, assuming it's anything like this movie.

The humor is top-tier. You absolutely have to check out Clerks. 🙏

Then move on to Dogma, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Zack and miriti make a porno.👍

maybe 👍

Bumping this thread.
Was the movie actually misunderstood, or was it just bad?
It pulled in $1.84 million against a $4 million budget. If I remember correctly, Kevin Smith bought the rights and distributed it himself, which clearly didn't pan out.

It wasn't really all that great...

The movie wasn't anything special, really
but I guess I still remember it...