The Thousands

The most intriguing thing about Kevin Smith’s latest film is how un-Kevin Smith-like it is. Yes, there are extended, static slabs of dialogue… but this time they’re mesmerising rather than indulgent, capturing fundamentalist preacher Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) in full flight. The cinematography also has a kinetic quality Smith’s talkfests have always lacked, and he holds out until the very end for some trademark quipping.

That said, Red State’s plotting is shaggy and his satire blunt. Three horny teens (Michael Angarano, Kyle Gallner and Nicholas Braun) arrange a gang-bang with an internet cougar (Melissa Leo), seemingly untroubled that all the other cougars are in New York and LA while theirs is in Cooper’s Dell, the neighbouring town notorious for hosting Cooper’s fundy cult, who picket the funerals of murdered gay men. The kids are promptly roofied, abducted and earmarked for clingwrapped hate-murder, Laura Palmer-style.

When local authorities call in federal Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms agent Joseph Keenan (John Goodman), his attempts to avoid a Waco-style fiasco create… a Waco-style fiasco. At one point, Smith almost revisits the religious apotheosis of Dogma, but despite his freshest, most surprising plot in years, Red State is too messy to be really climactic.