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2011, Horror/Mystery & thriller, 1h 29m

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Critics Consensus

Red State is an audacious and brash affair that ultimately fails to provide competent scares or thrills. Read critic reviews

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Red state   photos.

Three horny teenagers -- Travis (Michael Angarano), Jarod (Kyle Gallner) and Billy-Ray (Nicholas Braun) -- can't believe their luck when they meet a woman online who says she wants to hook up with all three of them at once. But the promise of sex is a trap, and the boys find themselves in the hands of Abin Cooper (Michael Parks), a lunatic preacher who spews so much hatred that even neo-Nazis stay away. Cooper means to kill the trio for their sins, prompting a desperate bid for escape.

Rating: R (Disturbing Content|Brief Nudity|Pervasive Language|Some Sexual Content|Strong Violence)

Genre: Horror, Mystery & thriller

Original Language: English

Director: Kevin Smith

Producer: Jonathan Gordon

Writer: Kevin Smith

Release Date (Theaters): Oct 19, 2011  limited

Release Date (Streaming): Apr 1, 2012

Box Office (Gross USA): $1.1M

Runtime: 1h 29m

Distributor: Smodcast Pictures

Production Co: The Harvey Boys

Sound Mix: Dolby

Cast & Crew

Michael Parks

Abin Cooper

John Goodman

Joseph Keenan

Melissa Leo

Kyle Gallner

Michael Angarano

Nicholas Braun

Stephen Root

Sheriff Wynan

Kerry Bishé

Betty Aberlin

Kevin Smith

Screenwriter

Jonathan Gordon

Elyse Seiden

Executive Producer

Nhaelan McMillan

Victor Choy

Jason Clark

Philip Elway

Shea Kammer

David A. Klein

Cinematographer

Film Editing

Cabot McMullen

Production Design

Susan Bolles

Art Director

Dorit Hurst

Set Decoration

Beth Pasternak

Costume Design

Deborah Aquila

Mary Tricia Wood

News & Interviews for Red State

Weinsteins Pass On Kevin Smith Horror Flick

Kevin Smith Finishes Red State Script

RT-UK Exclusive: Kevin Smith’s Horror Project Revealed

Critic Reviews for Red State

Audience reviews for red state.

Disturbing, but predictable.

Kevin Smith's shot at a "serious" movie is this infuriating, terribly directed and unfocused mess that only manages to be morally disgusting in its childish, inconsistent political ideas while also full of implausible situations and long, unnecessary monologues.

[img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img]

Three high school boys go off in search of internet sex and find themselves kidnapped by a heavily armed religious cult. Kevin Smith's first attempt at a "grown up" film, Red State is an offbeat thriller with horror overtones that continually tries and occasionally succeeds at confounding your expectations. It begins as a Porky's style road movie, veers into torture porn territory only to become a siege thriller. Smith's willingness to dispose of key characters on a whim always keeps you guessing, but it also means that you never really connect with any of them and his dialogue is a little too pleased with itself in places, turning into ranting monologues rather than genuine discourse. The plot is also rather too far fetched to be taken seriously as drama and it's not OTT enough to be considered exploitation, but it is off-beat and unusual enough to always entertain thanks to watchable performances from John Goodman and Michael Parks. Despite its faults, this is probably Smith's best effort to date.

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Red State – review

K evin Smith's new film shows flashes of a bizarre sort of genius, particularly its apocalyptic finale, featuring some heavy duty military hardware. Evidently inspired by the 1993 Waco siege, the movie is about an extremist, homophobic, Christian hate-cult which lures curious teens to sex sessions with older women via Craigslist-type web postings. Melissa Leo is the bait, and having persuaded three horndog young guys to drink spiked beers in her trailer she is to reveal that the pleasures of the flesh are very much not in store for them. Michael Parks is very good as the sinister, charismatic preacher Abin Cooper and John Goodman plays it straight as the ATF officer Joe Keenan, leading his troops into an earsplitting showdown. As a satire of the American religious right, this works pretty well, and it doesn't look like a straightforward exploitation shocker. There are interesting things going on technically; Abin's first "sermon" scene is held for a daringly long time, as an almost static and cerebral setpiece. The ending itself, so promisingly hallucinatory, was in my view a bit fudged. But this is Smith's best film for a while.

• Kevin Smith
• Melissa Leo
• Drama films
• Horror films

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Red State (2011)

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Startlingly violent, intense Kevin Smith shocker.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie asks viewers to consider extreme hatred

Most of the characters are deeply flawed and not p

Zealots capture, imprison, torture, and murder peo

Little nudity, but very strong sexual situations:

Strong, constant language (a hallmark of Kevin Smi

Coca-Cola is mentioned twice, but both times in a

Teens drink something alcoholic -- unseen, in a pa

Parents need to know that this extremely violent thriller is full of potentially controversial/offensive social commentary about extreme right-wing religious radicals, gay bashing, the effect of the Patriot Act, and Internet porn. Though the movie's dark mood isn't typical for writer/director Kevin Smith (who usually…

Positive Messages

The movie asks viewers to consider extreme hatred and intolerance performed in the name of righteousness -- as well as intolerance practiced by so-called "good guys." The movie offers no solutions or suggestions for these problems, but it does assume empathy and understanding on the part of its audience.

Positive Role Models

Most of the characters are deeply flawed and not people you'd want teens emulating in any way. Only one character, a cop, shows empathy and humanity during a tense and impossible situation.

Violence & Scariness

Zealots capture, imprison, torture, and murder people whom they think are gay. Viewers see screaming victims, blood, and dead bodies. There are broken bones and exploding heads. The movie's climax is a brutal shootout in which several people are viciously shot and killed, many point blank. Children inside a church are shown to be in danger. A general attitude of hate and anger permeates the movie.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Little nudity, but very strong sexual situations: Three teen boys look at a sex "hook-up" site -- which is shown quickly and briefly on a smartphone -- and respond to an ad. They meet up with a middle-aged woman who has agreed to have a "foursome" with them (though the actual act doesn't happen). There's the suggestion of a man giving another man oral sex. Lots of strong sexual language and a crude drawing of female genitalia.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong, constant language (a hallmark of Kevin Smith movies), including countless uses of "f--k," "s--t," "p---y," "t-ts," "vagina," "d--k," "ass," "a--hole," "Jesus Christ" (as an exclamation), "hell," "bitch," "anal," "sodomize," etc. Also derogatory slurs like "wetback" and "f----t."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Coca-Cola is mentioned twice, but both times in a highly unappetizing way. (It's unlikely that Coke paid for or approved of anything here.)

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Teens drink something alcoholic -- unseen, in a paper bag -- while driving. Later they drink beer. A local sheriff pours and drinks several whiskeys, getting drunk in the process.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this extremely violent thriller is full of potentially controversial/offensive social commentary about extreme right-wing religious radicals, gay bashing, the effect of the Patriot Act, and Internet porn. Though the movie's dark mood isn't typical for writer/director Kevin Smith (who usually makes edgy comedies), the content is everything you'd expect from the man behind Clerks , Dogma , and Chasing Amy : extremely strong, constant language and sexual innuendo. This time Smith ups the ante by adding brutal violence, including torture, imprisonment, murder, blood, gore, and many, many dead bodies. There's also teen drinking and a scene of an adult drinking to drunkenness. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (4)
• Kids say (3)

Based on 4 parent reviews

THIS IS HOW I ACCESS MY CRYPTOCURRENCY WHEN THE TRADING PLATFORM DID NOT ALLOW ME TO WITHDRAW MY FUNDS OF $399k,

Beware of short-lived cryptocurrencies, what's the story.

Somewhere in Middle America, three teens find an online ad for sex with a middle-aged woman ( Melissa Leo ). They drive out to the middle of nowhere to meet her, ready for the foursome she has planned. But instead, she drugs them, and they become the prisoners of Abin Cooper's 5 Points Trinity Church. Cooper ( Michael Parks ) and his followers firmly believe that homosexuals are "Satan's instrument on earth," which they believe gives them license to torment and kill anyone they suspect of being gay. Before long the police, commanded by Joseph Keenan ( John Goodman ), arrive, leading to a bloody shootout. Will the good guys survive? Are there any good guys?

Is It Any Good?

This gruesome, brutal movie is going to be a tough sell to fans of Smith's usual humorous fare. Writer/director Kevin Smith is known for his vulgar comedies about troubled slackers ( Clerks , Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back , Zack and Miri Make a Porno , etc.), but for his 10th feature film, he strikes out in a radical new direction with a horrific thriller. Aside from RED STATE's rampant language and sex talk, it barely feels like a Smith movie -- unless you consider that religion in some form or another has crept into many of his films, most notably Dogma . He's clearly very angry at those he thinks justify hatred in the name of righteousness.

Even in his comedies, Smith has never been shy or held back on taboo topics; but here he turns his usual humor into a cynical rant, without a specific comment or a likeable hero. It's very effective and highly powerful, but the movie's main drawback is that it's so heavy and dark.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the movie's extreme violence . What is its purpose? Is it necessary to the story? When does media violence cross the line? And who determines where that line falls?

Are there any examples of a healthy relationship in the movie? Are any of the characters role models?

How does this movie compare to Kevin Smith's other films? Does he have a consistent agenda? How would you define it?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 23, 2011
• On DVD or streaming : August 11, 2023
• Cast : John Goodman , Melissa Leo , Michael Parks
• Director : Kevin Smith
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Lionsgate
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 88 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : strong violence/disturbing content, some sexual content including brief nudity, and pervasive language
• Last updated : September 3, 2023

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Sundance 2011: RED STATE Review

Red State review. At Sundance 2011, Matt reviews Kevin Smith's Red State starring Michael Parks, Melissa Leo, Kyle Gallner, and John Goodman.

Confidence is a crucial quality in a filmmaker.  Unlike the artistic expression of a painting or a novel, a film requires marshaling a small army to execute thousands of decisions in order to achieve a filmmaker’s vision.  Kevin Smith is not a filmmaker who exudes confidence.  After the noble failure of Jersey Girl , he retreated to the safety of Clerks II and then followed it up with the simple-yet-enjoyable Zack and Miri Make a Porno and the widely-despised Cop Out .  His new film, Red State , is a radical departure for Smith and yet he lacks the confidence to properly execute the action-horror-thriller he’s devised.  Visually and aurally impressive and featuring a phenomenal performance from Michael Parks, the film never completely comes together as it’s undermined by poorly-timed humor, clumsy exposition, and a refusal to trust the audience with ideas more complex than “fascism is bad.” A trio of high-school friends (Michael Angarano, Kyle Gallner, and Nicholas Braun) thinks they’re going to a gangbang, but are lured into a trap by Pastor Abin Cooper (Parks) and his ultra-conservative Five Points Church.  Based on the real-life pastor Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church, Five Points protests funerals with signs saying “God Hates Fags”.  But Cooper and Five Points believes that protesting homosexuality is hardly enough.  They believe that homosexuals and all sinners must be purged from the Earth.  In its first half, Red State is a pseudo-horror film that has the at the mercy of the sadistic pastor and his flock.  But half-way through, Red State turns from being a horror film and morphs into a full-blown action movie, complete with every bullet on earth being fired.  The transition doesn’t hurt the film.  What hurts the film is Smith’s inability to trust the tension he’s created through impressive visuals and audio. Smith has never been known as a visual director.  He’s rightly criticized for static camera and simplistic lighting.  Smith and cinematographer David Klein craft a style that works wonders for the movie.  The use of grimy filters and jittery camera-work is nothing new, but it represents a big step forward for Smith.  The sound design is also terrific and Smith wisely keeps the film free from background music.  The sound of bullets and the hymns of Cooper ring with perfectly clarity and impact.Although Red State represents a technical improvement in Smith’s direction, he’s still his own worst enemy when it comes to pacing and dialogue.  The introduction of Five Points is sloppily handled in a classroom scene and then halfway through the film we get yet another long scene of exposition regarding the church.  Smith’s humor also hurts the film when it comes to the second-half of the movie.  It’s great for the introduction because it lulls the viewer into a false sense of security and Smith shows admirable restraint during the horror half of the movie.  But once the bullets start flying, Smith feels it’s necessary to have characters start cracking jokes in the middle of the firefight.  He has an opportunity to raise the tension to the point where the audience can barely breath and he blows it.  And while the horror section is the stronger portion of the movie, it features a sermon from Parks that goes on far too long.  Smith has always been a fan of monologues, but the sermon is so lengthy that even Parks’ remarkable performance can’t hold the audience’s attention. Parks is an essential part of the film and he takes a juicy role and does wonders with it.  He gives Cooper a sonorous voice and a sociopathic detachment that keeps the larger-than-life figure feeling authentic.  You’ll never hear Cooper scream in anger.  Rather, he’s a calm collected serial killer and his congregation and faith are his weapons.  Also getting a chance to shine is Melissa Leo as Parks’ daughter.  John Goodman has the thankless task of being a mouthpiece for exposition and then delivering a clumsy message at the end about how fascism is wrong whether it comes from a church or the government.  The scene is punctuated by talk about “coke-can cocks” and other lines of Smith’s trademark vulgarity that are incongruous with the tone of the rest of the movie.It’s admirable that Kevin Smith finally took a chance on breaking free from comedy flicks and used a visual style that was foreign to his work.  But he never jumps in with both feet and he constantly undermines himself.  However, the film marks a significant step forward for him as a filmmaker.  But after 17 years and his announcement that his next film, Hit Somebody , will be his last, it looks like Red State is too little, too late.Rating: C+For all of our coverage of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, click here . Also, here are links to all of my Sundance reviews so far:

• Bobby Fischer Against the World
• Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel
• Higher Ground
• The Interrupters
• The Music Never Stopped
• My Idiot Brother
• Project Nim
• Tyrannosaur

Smith proves he can do brutally great horror in ‘Red State’ (2011)

I’m a horror fan, but sometimes I watch a movie that makes me say “Wait, do I really like horror?” Writer-director Kevin Smith’s “Red State” (2011) is so horrific in its first act, when a group of sex-driven teenage boys get entrapped by a religious cult outside of town, that I had to stop and finish it the next day. It was hard to restart, even with the potential of seeing the bad guys get what’s coming to them in the second half.

But that’s my hang-up. There’s no question “Red State” is well crafted, both as a screenplay and as a finished film. The movie is Smith ( “Clerks III” ) saying “See, I can make a great horror movie if I want to – I’m just generally not interested in doing so.”

Textual statements, too

“Red State” makes statements within its text too, about cult religions and government secrets. And it features a thrilling shootout in the back half that you can’t look away from. The sequence includes those shaky but ultra-crisp close-ups that war and action movies had adopted in the wake of “Saving Private Ryan.”

“Red State” (2011)

Director: Kevin Smith

Writer: Kevin Smith

Starring: Michael Parks, Melissa Leo, John Goodman

Sometimes death is abstract enough in horror movies that we don’t dwell on it. But the cult’s method of killing their captives by wrapping them in plastic first to avoid the blood spill is strikingly inhuman and dehumanizing.

We brace ourselves for these killings – of teens who are considered sexual deviants (which means they are interested in any kind of non-marital sex) – even as we listen to Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) preach to his flock. He is disturbingly persuasive through sheer charisma. Smith further emphasizes the deeply disturbing scene by cutting to children watching, swinging their legs in bored bare comprehension.

Parks gives one of the two most memorable performances. The other comes from John Goodman as ATF agent Joseph Keenan. He’s a down-the-middle, by-the-book, morally decent official who wants to retire with some savings rather than have his wife clip coupons.

Critiques to go around

Through Keenan and a cool-with-the-kids school teacher in an opening segment, Smith demonstrates a Pollyanna view of government employees. But he balances that with cynical (but likely accurate) statements elsewhere.

Notably, Keenan is ordered by his off-screen superiors to kill everyone in the compound – including children and captives. This is so the government can control the narrative. But as “Red State” illustrates via a mini-thread with young cult member Dana (Kaylee DeFer) and captive survivor Jarod (Kyle Gallner), if the government wanted to do things above-board, it could.

There are witnesses available to form a strong court case. Then the cult’s children wouldn’t have to be killed. But as the ATF officials admit to Keenan in the debriefing, it’s easier to kill them all – or at least to lock them up without trial forever. After all, the first option is legal as long as the details are buried in the shootout’s chaos, and the second is legal under the Patriot Act.

Smith is no fan of religious cults, but he’s equally critical of corrupt government. In this way, “Red State” is actually rather safe: It’s hard to watch at first, but it’s hard for anyone to get mad at the film in the end.

Everyone’s awful

Both sides of the conflict are unabashed bad guys. Keenan enters as a refreshing moral touchstone in the back half after the sheer terror of the first half (even though the politicizing of the word “terrorist” becomes a theme after the early out-of-the-box terror).

“Red State” is unsubtle with its messages. But as a story, it’s gripping in a way that’s just shy of how Tarantino might do things. Smith shifts points of view and genres. We’re intimately traveling alongside a character, only to see them killed off. Then we’re intimately with another. This approach requires that we be invested in each POV character, and indeed we are thanks to the performances and the tense situations.

Smith crafts a horror-action commentary that’s great yet also seemingly effortless. It probably wasn’t truly effortless; his effortless films are probably the bad ones. “Red State” is one of his good ones; it stands out among his lost decade of the 2010s.

Click here to visit our Horror Zone.

Red State Review

From the director that brought you jersey girl. no, really..

3 out of 5 Stars, 6/10 Score

In This Article

More Reviews by Daniel Krupa

Ign recommends.

Red State Movie Review

Written by Charlotte Stear

DVD released by Entertainment One

Written and directed by Kevin Smith 2011, 88 minutes, Rated 18 (UK) Starring: Michael Angarano as Travis Kyle Gallner as Jarod Nicholas Braun as Billy-Ray Michael Parks as Abin Cooper Melissa Leo as Sara John Goodman as Joseph Keenan

Foreward: The original review was written after a cinema screening of Red State . The section on the extra features was added after viewing the UK Blu-ray, released 24th January 2012 by Entertainment One Distribution.

Red State finally sees its UK release this week and I got the opportunity to sneak a quick preview as Kevin Smith toured the UK with his new horror film on his Q&A tour.

There’s no need to go over the obvious here, this is new ground for Smith and a long way from his Silent Bob days, so a horror piece from the funny man was definitely going to raise a few eyebrows. It’s a bold step, and after watching it I was immediately glad he has decided to branch out into a new genre. The film follows three young guys (Michael Angarano, Nicholas Braun and Kyle Gallner) looking to have a good time in Middle America where there is nothing to do but get into trouble. The boys are unknowingly lured into a church of Christian extremists led by Pastor Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) to be executed in front of his congregation and rid the world of evil. However, the local sheriff realises there is trouble with the fundamentalist group and calls in Joe Keenan (John Goodman), a government agent who has been tracking the religious group.

Red State starts with an intensity that has you practically on the edge of your seat, and yes I hate that clichéd phrase, but it’s the only way to describe the first 30 minutes or so. The three boys are herded into a manically crazy situation in which they can see what is going to happen to them, and as the audience, we feel their dread too. There are no major scare techniques; it is all tensely created by the script and fantastic acting. There is no score whatsoever, which is something Kevin Smith pointed out during his Q&A session, I really wouldn’t have noticed otherwise, which is quite remarkable considering how many horror films rely on music to manipulate the audience into being scared and creating jumps. Quite an impressive feat. Though there is a solid start to it, the film does seem to change in tone and becomes more than a horror film as the special agents come into play in the story. Although I liked where the story went, how it got there felt a bit disjointed and this is the one place I feel the film does suffer. There second half definitely lags in comparison to the explosive beginning. There are some fine performances here which really make the movie work. Michael Parks as Abin Cooper is mesmerising and terrifying at the same time and I couldn’t picture anyone else achieving the same result other than him. Melissa Leo as Sara, daughter of Abin, delivered a really intense performance and John Goodman blew me away. Being a fan of his in the TV series Treme, it was exciting to watch him do something a bit different. The one performance to watch out for is Kerry Bishé as Cheyenne, daughter of extremist Sara, who puts in some incredibly emotional, gut wrenching scenes.

It’s a fantastic subject matter and a particularly unique concept, there’s no denying the massive references to the “most hated family in America”, the Phelps, when looking at the onscreen family of extremists, and what can be more horrifying than looking up at a screen knowing there are people out there that believe with the same intensity as what is being depicted? Very well, they aren’t wrapping people up in cling film and executing them, but it is the terror of what the human mind can do that is the undeniably scariest thing of all when watching this. Smith obviously has a passion for the genre which makes his work very compelling, his style and the way the film is shot really adds to the intensity of the feature and there aren’t many films you can compare it to. At a push, I was reminded of The Devil’s Rejects in style and the shootout scenes, but that’s about it. Having Quentin Tarantino’s approval brazenly blasted over the posters of the film, (“I love this movie!”) is a great stamp of approval and it’s quite apt too because I was faintly reminded of Tarantino’s work in the long dialogue sequences Smith has put in Red State , not usually his style, but then, none of this really is.

This may be new ground for Smith but his humour is still pretty prevalent, there are some very funny moments but these also act as great tension breakers. In fact, I laughed far too hard at things that weren’t that funny just because of the light relief it gave me, but I was glad to see it still there, a hint of the Smith we are familiar with.

It must have been tough for Smith to tackle such a project, not only in the subject matter and style, but also in having people constantly refer back to his previous work. It does suffer in the way it flows, but essentially this is a really good, original horror movie. And that’s all we really want isn’t it?

Special Features:

There is a very cool selection of extras on the Red State Blu-ray which includes:

• Making of Red State With Intro by Kevin Smith
• The Sundance Speech with Intro By Kevin Smith
• A Conversation with Michael Parks with Intro by Kevin Smith
• Deleted Scenes with Intro By Kevin Smith
• Trailers with Intro By Kevin Smith
• Poster Gallery with Intro by Kevin Smith
• Red State of the Union Smodcasts

You may see a recurring theme on these features, all come with a small introduction with director Kevin Smith which gives a nice added charm. After watching them all you will be very aware of all the hard work that went into the funding, making and touring of the movie and the intros by Smith are just another way of him stamping his approval on everything about this film. The extras kick off with a really excellent 45-minute documentary that takes us behind the scenes of the making of Red State . It includes interviews with the cast and crew and has some great insights into what was endured while making the film. It also gives Smith a chance to talk about his reasons for taking this direction and how he came to make such a different kind of film to what we normally see from him. I especially liked how Smith describes Red State compared to his other movies, “Most of my films are like a milkshake: real smooth to drink. This one’s more like a whiskey.” The documentary continues its story after the making of the film, and shows us the journey as Smith took it on the road. It reflects on his current position on movie making and really emphasises what it took to get this movie made. Considering the subject matter of the film it comes as no surprise that the family that Red State is loosely based on, the Phelps, make an appearance outside of a screening of the film in Kansas City. They have the actual footage of their protest and Smith’s story behind that. After watching Red State this will be incredibly eerie to watch. Big fans of Kevin’s Smodcast will be very happy as there are 13 episodes on the disc that chat about the movie as it progressed. One of Smith’s real pleasures in life is social media and he knows how to work it. He has a massive following and its things like the podcasts and his Twitter page that really helped get this film made. This links quite nicely to the next feature on the disc, Smith’s speech at Sundance. This is particularly interesting to fans of all Smith’s work as it has been 17 years since Clerks was first shown at that very festival. To see him back there with such an interesting piece of work that really took time and effort to make, is something any fan would be eager to see. After this there is a very interesting interview with the real star of the movie, Michael Parks. Smith’s intro for this is nothing short of glowing and the interview itself is fascinating. Parks has a slow, deep, growl of a voice that was one of the mesmerising things about his performance. Getting an insight into how that character came about and how Parks shaped it is very compelling to watch. The features round up with the inevitable deleted scenes, trailers and poster which are all the general things you expect to see, nice to have them there, but it’s nothing massively special. Everything on this disc complements the sentiment of the film, it has been a hard road for Smith and this project that he has crafted and that work shows in these features. The only thing that would have made this even better would be a director’s commentary over the top of it all. I got the chance to see Smith chat after a screening of this movie and the things he pointed out in that short hour were unbelievable, the possibilities of what he would ramble on about and point out as the film unfolds would be utterly fascinating. Sadly, we don’t have that on here but all in all, these are some great extras that will give you a lot to think on after watching them.

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Screen Rant

Red state: why kevin smith's horror movie would be more popular today.

Kevin Smith’s horror film Red State directly tackled political and social commentary, which has since become a popular subgenre of horror.

Kevin Smith's   ambitious   Red State , a flop   when released back in 2011, would likely be far more popular if it were to be released today. It marked Kevin Smith’s transition into the horror genre, and while it didn’t quite connect then, it’s the type of socially conscious movie that’s right in line with modern horror sensibilities. Red State was the first time that Kevin Smith abandoned his security blanket of comedy, and his horror movie combined religious extremism with a destructive Waco-esque setting.

Red State set its sights on satirizing the Westboro Baptist Church’s Fred Phelps and his ability to charismatically inspire people for destructive purposes and to generate cult-like devotion. The events of the movie turn an innocent quest for sexual gratification into a fight for survival for several teenagers. Political horror movies have always existed, but Red State features exaggerated performances and an on-the-nose critique that, back in 2011, was received more as a lecture than as horror.

Related: The Hunt Isn’t A Bad Movie: It’s Too Real For 2020

Red State’s fear comes from how people like cult leader Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) look completely normal, yet they’re filled with twisted convictions that drive them to hurt other people. In many ways, this is more frightening than a serial killer in a scary mask or some supernatural monster that’s conjured from Hell. The undying support that evangelists and cult leaders receive arguably gives these kinds of religious and political figures more power than Michael Myers or a Predator. It’s part of what makes them so frightening. They preach holy values, but individuals like Abin Cooper turn themselves into messiahs and then use their disciples to carry out vengeance in the world. This premise has become more relevant in recent years; franchises like The Purge are now built on themes of politics  and challenging social norms in an overt way. There’s now a clear horror niche for Red State to fit into that didn’t previously exist to this degree.

Red State’s strengths lie in how Cooper and the members of Five Points Trinity Church feel like genuinely dangerous people with extreme ideals. They’re willing to endanger innocent lives in order to enforce their narrative while hiding behind its false moral righteousness. Red State presents hyperbolized examples, but people like them absolutely exist in the real world, as do other dangerous groups and mindsets. It’s exactly why political horror films have been able to rise as a horror subgenre in recent years, tackling head-on the vitriol and danger inherent in certain political views and social issues. Addressing such issues in horror used to require a modicum of subtlety, but it’s now no longer considered as much of a risk to be bold and divisive with values and representations in horror. At the time of its release, even the marketing campaign for Red State was marred in controversy when Kevin Smith marched with protestors, but it’s the kind of stunt that currently would be seen as a positive and intrigue audiences. Recent  horror movies like The Hunt have used controversial political messaging to their advantage as a way to attract a larger audience with their marketing.

Cooper and the Five Points Trinity Church have power through most of the movie, but Red State ultimately turns them into fools. They confuse a teenage prank with the Rapture and they're all either killed or arrested. The movie's final coda shows that even in prison Cooper's doctrine isn't tolerated and he's viewed as an eccentric outcast. He's left with zero power and reduced to a punchline. This type of pointed discourse and vilification of bigoted characters today gets praised as being fearless in films such as Get Out or TV series such as American Horror Story: Cult. Kevin Smith is still making horror films  that have had a mixed reception. It's just a shame  Red State was released too ahead of its time to be recognized as the   provocative, fascinating movie it would likely be regarded as today.

Next: Kevin Smith's Tusk 2: Why The Director's Idea Is The Sequel We Need

Red State Review

30 Sep 2011

In his previous career, Kevin Smith essentially stuck to a genre of his own invention: slacker rom-com with pop-culture footnotes and gross-out elements. He might well be aggrieved that a whole generation of bigger-budget Hollywood star vehicles (Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Hangover etc.) repeat Smith schtick and connect with wider audiences beyond his devoted indie following. After the compromised studio project Cop Out, he has gone handmade and personal again, but here sets out to make something like a genre film — though it’s hard to pin down exactly what genre Red State is.

Smith labels it a horror movie, and the first act has overtones of the kids-captured-by-torture-cult cycle of Hostel. However, he hasn’t got the patience to build suspense or even stick with his original set of mixed-up kid characters, three horny guys lured by an internet siren (a somewhat wasted Melissa Leo) who promises three-way sex but delivers them into cages before an ecstatically demented congregation. After attempted escapes and some splatter deaths, it then shifts into a siege/shoot-out movie starring John Goodman as the exasperated agent nagged on all sides to bring about a bloodbath before delivering editorial speeches about the sorry state of America and paying off with crass buggery jokes. For a film supposedly anti-anti-gay prejudice, it’s full of that Smithian blend of homoeroticism-tinged-with-homophobia that’s weirdly commonplace in Yank guy culture. After ten rambling, anecdotal films, Smith the writer hasn’t quite learned how to tell a story — he writes speeches that work like sermons or stand-up turns, but doesn’t know how to do exposition.

Red State is about interesting undercurrents in contemporary American society — it’s plainly inspired by the antics of the ‘God Hates Fags’ brand of lunatic Christianity and the conduct of the Bureau Of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms And Explosives in the Waco siege of an American extremist cult. Michael Parks is outstanding as a plausible baddie who is at once dedicated to executing gays for Jesus — though, note, the main kids are straight, and murdered gay characters don’t register — and a Rapture-awaiting apocalyptic gun nut. Goodman can sell pretty much anything, and wearily handles disillusionment with the disaster-waiting-to-happen that is a multi-agency siege of a heavily armed church compound with a full complement of semi-innocent women and kids among the die-hard maniacs.

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Review by Brian Eggert September 2, 2011

With elements of horror and ham-fisted social allegory, Kevin Smith’s Red State has a lofty set of goals that go unreached and become confused by his film’s inconsistent internal logic. This is a film that Smith himself has inferred would be controversial, if not socially confronting, and drastically different than his other work—so much so that at Sundance, the writer-director insisted he would self-distribute the release, it being a passion project of considerable personal importance. After certain unfortunate realities sank in, the film found its home at Lionsgate, who demoted the release with an all-but-direct-to-video push. And just like its release, this supposedly challenging film arrives with a whimper, its ideas impotent and sophomoric and wholly unaffecting, despite the significant themes driving it.

Weighty intentions notwithstanding, this is “a Kevin Smith film” through and through. Since Smith asks that movie critics pay to screen his work, he’ll be pleased to know I watched it at home through a video-on-demand service and paid for it out of pocket. I invited a friend, a longtime Kevin Smith fan, to join me. We had a bet as to how long Smith’s “serious” film could go without saying the F-word. My guess was a minute; my friend’s guess was five minutes. After three minutes, we had our answer. From here, Smith’s usual discussions of anal sex, internet porn, and orgies ensue, all laced with gratuitous F-words. The tone takes a drastic shift into horror territory, and then shifts again into a Waco, TX parallel. As a result, the overall tone feels uneven and scattershot, reaching for a level of sophistication for which Smith hasn’t yet proved himself capable.

The film opens with expositional scenes detailing the skewed beliefs of the Five Points Church, a twisted conservative Christian sect led by madman preacher Abin Cooper (Michael Parks), who’s a few shades more maliciously righteous than Fred Phelps (a connection that Smith is quick to downplay). Three teenagers (Michael Angarano, Nicholas Braun, and Kyle Gallner) hear from their schoolteacher and parents about Cooper’s fervent anti-gay views through sloppy dialogue that doesn’t advance the story but establishes the conflict, always hinting that Cooper’s people may have committed homophobic hate crimes on their stretch of land called Cooper’s Dell. As the teens plan to rendezvous with a lonely internet cougar on that very property, their pursuits would seem to be safe, except they’re being lured there in an elaborate if nonsensical trap. (Of course, this all takes place in the South.)

Before long, the teens find themselves captive in a situation recalling something from Hostel or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , but blended with obvious Koreshian overtones. One of them wakes in a cage situated in a church, listening as Abin Cooper sermonizes in a very, very long monologue about homosexuals being Satan’s earthbound servants and how God only loves those who fear and act out His wrath. (Parks is downright creepy in these scenes; if Red State is worth watching at all, it’s for his performance.) And by the time Cooper begins sacrificing his victims, Smith still hasn’t explained why a bunch of horny heterosexual teenagers is being “punished” by a church identified primarily through their anti-gay position. This seems to be the major device propelling the plot, and yet it simply does not make sense within the logic established by Smith’s otherwise self-conscious dialogue. Smith would have been better off making Stephen Root’s closeted gay sheriff the victim, if only for consistency’s sake.

At any rate, before long, the police are involved. Cue another deplorably long scene of exposition as AFT Agent Joseph Keenan (John Goodman) explains to his superior, via Bluetooth, the history of his investigation into the Five Points Church purchasing illegal firearms. Shortly after, Agent Keenan’s team arrives to search Cooper’s Dell, at which point an excruciatingly long gunfight explodes and lasts most of the third act. Smith fans have learned again and again (most recently on Cop Out ) that he’s not an action director, and here’s further proof. Smith and his longtime cinematographer David Klein shoot flaccid action scenes where actors do nothing more than hold a gun and shoot; rarely do we see the result of those shots, and rarer still do the editing imply action: As the sequence plays, there’s gunfire from an extremist. Cut to gunfire from random ATF soldiers. Cut to gunfire from a different extremist. Back to another AFT grunt. And so on. There’s nothing actionized or cinematic about it. It’s just shooting shootin’.

Smith’s most unsuccessful (and arguably his most important) element emerges when the ATF crew receives an order to eliminate the Five Points Church and uses the excuse that they’re a suspected terrorist cell, which attempts to color the government goons as being just as “in the wrong” as the religious wackos. Smith hopes to create an amoral association between the two, which, if executed correctly, may have had greater resonance toward a condemnation of American policies. Instead, Red State spends so much more time painting the religious nutjobs as vile crazies that when the ATF arrives to shoot them down, the audience feels relieved, as opposed to confronted, by the hypocrisy of it all. This is with the understanding that Smith has no doubt intended his audience to feel guilty for such a reaction (and thus guilty for ostensibly demanding a second Iraq War, all but ignoring illegal rendition, etc.), but in his satiric, exaggerated little scenario, he could hardly expect us to weigh the moral implications of the ATF’s choices with any seriousness. After all, his film opens under lowbrow horror movie rules, after which all hope for importance is discarded in favor of more primal concerns for movie-style catharsis.

Still, at times his production looks good, with a most filmlike appearance to contrast the bland presentation of his earlier works like Mallrats and Chasing Amy . Quality actors such as Goodman and recent Oscar winner Melissa Leo ( The Fighter ) may draw some viewers, who will surely be disappointed that such talent filled such one-note roles. On the whole, Smith’s action scenes and dialogue border on pointless. Monologues go on for so… very… long… without any natural purpose within the story, whereas someone like Quentin Tarantino uses extended dialogue sequences to build mood or character or tension. In Red State , Smith seems to have lost any sense of how to tell a story through words, and he certainly hasn’t mastered how to tell a story through images. This is all on a long list of components missing or mishandled by Smith, in a film whose pretensions don’t live up to their own, self-purported hype.

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Movie review: red state, movie review: fast five.

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Directed by Kevin Smith Screenplay by Kevin Smith

John Goodman as Joseph Keenan Michael Parks as Abin Cooper Melissa Leo as Sara

How long is Red State ? 97 minutes. What is Red State rated? R for strong violence/disturbing content, some sexual content including brief nudity, and pervasive language.

Kevin Smith Moves To A Different Location in “Red State”

Kevin Smith’s post Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back cinematic efforts have been … iffy at best. Jersey Girl was a catastrophe. Clerks II has its defenders (and I am not one of them ). Zack and Miri Make a Porno was probably his most Smith-ian movie, even if it did suffer from the distinct feeling that he was trying to be more Judd Apatow than Smith. And Cop Out , which I know wasn’t written by Smith, proved that even talented writers lack an understanding of the word “homage.”

Elsewhere in his career, Smith has moved onto other endeavors: speaking engagements around the world, a podcast empire, Twitter, a recently greenlit reality show , and other such projects. So enamored with his speaking tours and podcasting, he even announced his retirement from directing after his next movie(s), Hit Somebody (which will now be a two-parter), preferring to be a storyteller rather than a filmmaker. (How long this will last is anyone’s guess, but like 90% of Hollywood retirement, I doubt it’ll last forever.)

The inspiration for Kevin Smith’s future epic.

Red State itself emerged with a bit of controversy. It will be the first film distributed under Smith’s own Smodcast banner. He took it on a multi-city tour where he did a Q&A afterward, then teamed with Lionsgate to release it to more audiences and on video on demand. On September 1, Red State premiered on most cable, satellite, and Internet VOD services, and it could be the highest profile movie to receive this treatment before beginning a limited theatrical run. (Next month’s Lars von Trier’s incredible looking Melancholia will also be available to home viewers before hitting theaters.) So, with this prologue out of the way, how is the movie?

Michael Parks as preacher Abin Cooper.

Red State does not feel like a Kevin Smith movie, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But it isn’t necessarily a good thing either. The half horror movie/half action movie might be Kevin Smith’s “best” directed movie (even if he does have a tendency to reuse the same techniques) and his “best” acted one (though a cast bolstered by John Goodman, Michael Parks, Stephen Root, and Melissa Leo helps a lot), but it lacks a passion and a point.

The film begins with Abin Cooper’s (Parks) Westboro Baptist Church-y church protesting the funeral of a recently murdered homosexual kid in small town America (despite the title, small town America does not take a beating in this movie). The funeral is just a brief detour on the way to high school for Travis (Michael Angarano). When he arrives at class, we’re treated to a teacher giving a clunky exposition about who Cooper is and what his church does. During lunch, Travis meets his two friends, Billy-Ray (Nicholas Braun) and Jarod (the talented Kyle Gallner), who tell him about a hooker willing to have sex with all three of them somewhere outside of town. It’s a typical set up for a horror movie, and it’s done with respect to the slow set-ups of 1970s-era horror films, but anyone looking for the type of clever and human friendships that Smith is most adept at writing will be disappointed.

Turns out the hooker (Sara, played by Leo) is really a fervent member of Cooper’s church, and she drugs the gang because of their willingness to give in to temptation. And thus the “horror movie” segment of Red State really kicks in, with Cooper as the patriarch of the nefarious church.

Parks gives a decent performance as Cooper — a typical and pleasant preacher with an awww-shucksness combined with true faith, completely blind to his own malevolence. However, the centerpiece of the movie, a sermon given by him to his church, comes across as yet another forced-exposition scene, except this time it’s Cooper talking about Cooper. One gets a slight sense that Kevin Smith is attempting an epic monologue moment, like Howard Beale in Network , but Cooper’s anti-homosexuals/anti-MTV/anti-sexuality speech seems taken straight out of the Fred Phelps playbook, offering nothing particularly new or heinous in the rant. While the message might be that the most horrific things come from man, the needlessly protracted scene fails to provide any depth into the congregants’ mindset nor does it explain their philosophy in a clever or unique way.

John Goodman as ATF Agent Joseph Keenan.

Soon after, the movie introduces ATF Agent Joseph Keenan (Goodman), who gives us yet another exposition scene explaining Cooper’s church while on the phone with his superior. Keenan’s team arrives at the compound to execute a search warrant and end up engaging in a massive firefight, where implied references to Waco are made constantly. The way the attack ends would have allowed Red State to close with an interesting and genuinely memorable moment, one drastically superior to rest of the film. Unfortunately, the epilogue-ish scene(s) spoil it.

Nevertheless, Smith films these scenes relatively well, and the Night of the Living Dead -esque style actually offers some suspense. But switching gears this quickly prevents us from spending needed time with Cooper or any other member of the church to fully establish them as characters, allow us to experience life on the compound, or truly examine the depths of their devotion.

Podcaster Kevin Smith, who writes and directs occasionally.

Red State might best be considered as an experiment for Kevin Smith. Instead of focusing on his writing, he focuses on his directing, possibly for the first time in his career. By creating something unlike anything else he’s ever done, he avoids his worst trademarks, but also his best ones — including the script. Smith knew the targets he wanted to hit (and this film really does narrow the aim), but he doesn’t figure out a way to give “life” to the proceedings or the vast majority of the characters. With some extra care, Cooper could have emerged as a terrific horror villain, but instead it seemed like Smith got bored and wanted to show off his abilities at shooting a gunfight.

To contact me, e-mail [email protected].

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• Entertainment
• The True Story Behind the Netflix Doc <i>What Jennifer Did</i>

The True Story Behind the Netflix Doc What Jennifer Did

It’s been nearly a decade since a 28-year-old Jennifer Pan was sentenced to life in prison for hiring hit men to kill her parents. Now, a new Netflix documentary , What Jennifer Did, released today (April 10), examines how Pan went from a star pianist as a child to her conviction for first degree murder , based on incriminating text messages and interviews with detectives involved in the case.

On Nov. 8, 2010, Pan’s mother, Bich Ha Pan, was killed and her father, Huei Hann Pan, was left in a coma after a violent attack at their home in Markham, Ontario, about 20 miles outside of Toronto . Pan was the only surviving witness, and the documentary includes footage of police interviews with Pan in the aftermath of the home invasion.

In the documentary, detectives make clear they were suspicious of Pan from the get-go. As director Jenny Popplewell puts it, “Why leave a surviving witness? If you're going to shoot two people, you would shoot the third.” Plus, a neighbor’s security camera footage showed three men entering the house, but no signs of forced entry.

Through footage of Pan’s questioning, the documentary reveals how Pan tangled herself up in a web of lies. She lied about graduating from high school and attending college, even forging report cards and student loan documents using Photoshop. She told her parents she was pursuing an undergraduate degree at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson), and her parents even drove her there because they thought she was attending classes. Her dad had dreams that she would become a pharmacist, while her mother wanted her to practice piano in all of her spare time. She was an award-winning pianist, but it was clear that her parent’s expectations were not her passions.

In fact, her passion was Danny Wong, a pizza restaurant worker and a drug dealer she dated for seven years. After her arrest, police found diary entries in which Pan wrote about how they dated on and off and how her parents didn’t want her to be with him. She became so depressed that she started cutting herself and told police that she hired the hitmen to kill her instead. “I needed them to kill me,” she says in footage of her questioning by a detective. “I didn’t want to live anymore…because I was such a disappointment.”

The documentary draws heavily on research and police footage crime reporter Jeremy Grimaldi had used for his 2016 book on the case, A Daughter's Deadly Deception: The Jennifer Pan Story. Through a 2014 records request, Grimaldi obtained text messages from Jennifer’s phone showing that Wong said he lined up a hitman named “homeboy.” In the documentary, police involved in the investigation say they believe Wong wanted Pan’s parents dead because he hoped to benefit from the life insurance and house Pan would come into, perhaps to finance his drug dealing.

In the documentary, detectives also discovered that Pan was so serious about killing her parents that she offered to pay another male friend to do it but that plan didn’t come through.

In 2015, Pan, Wong, plus two men she hired, Lenford Crawford and David Mylvaganam, were all sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years for the first-degree murder of Pan’s mother, and life in prison for the attempted murder of Pan’s father. In May 2023, they won an appeal because the jury wasn’t given the option of second degree murder in the case of Pan’s mother’s murder. Now it’s up to Canada’s supreme court to decide whether there will be another trial.

The documentarians hope the Netflix film will help bring new attention to the case, as detectives are still looking for a third hit man. Pan and her father declined to be interviewed for the documentary, and what really went on in the Pan household leading up to the killing may never be known.

Popplewell hopes that Pan’s troubled mental state will inspire viewers to recommend help for loved ones who appear as isolated as Pan. “This isn't an immediate snap, this was a slow unraveling that had an opportunity to be intercepted and for her to get help,” Popplewell says. “And unfortunately, it doesn't seem that she was able to speak to the right people about her emotions and how she was feeling…Rather than direct her to support, Daniel gave her the phone number of ‘homeboy.’”

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Write to Olivia B. Waxman at [email protected]

Men In Red States Push‘Civil War’ To Better-Than-Expected Opening: What We Know About The Controversial Film

T he hotly anticipated and controversial film "Civil War" made $25.7 million in its opening weekend after scoring impressive numbers in Thursday previews , pushing the film to become the best-performing on an opening weekend for production company A24, spurred largely by men and moviegoers in Southern states.

“Civil War” unseated blockbuster favorite "Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire” at the top of the weekend box office chart, scored the biggest-ever opening for A24 and and could go on to break the record for the company’s most successful film in the domestic market, according to Box Office Pro, a title currently held by Oscar-winning film “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once."

The audience for the film skewed heavily toward men, which made up 73% of movie-goers, according to the Hollywood Reporter , and Deadline reported that smaller Red-state markets like El Paso, Texas, Oklahoma City and Charlottesville, Virginia, were particularly hot for the release.

"Civil War" has been a topic of controversy as writer-director Alex Garland brings to life his vision of a divided America that sees California and Texas join together to rebel against the federal government.

The film, a cautionary tale about the extreme and rising polarization and political violence in the United States, depicts a nation dissolved into citizen v. citizen combat, complete with depictions of torture and suicide bombings that have been called " shocking ," " terrifying " and " chilling ” by reviewers.

Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura and Cailee Spaeny star as journalists traveling to Washington D.C. to chronicle the war, and is meant to depict the importance of the press in a divided time: “I want to make a film about journalists where journalists are the heroes,” Garland told the New York Times.

The film does not dive into the details of the politics at play in the civil war, why California and Texas have banded together (a pairing that was immediately criticized as unrealistic) or define the conflict as one between liberal and conservatives, according to the Times.

Crucial Quote

"What kind of American are you?” actor Jesse Plemons, who plays a sadistic soldier in the “Civil War” film, asks in the movie's trailer.

83%. That's the critics score of "Civil War" on Rotten Tomatoes. Peter Travers of ABC News called the film "the most original and propulsively exciting movie of the year so far." Huffington Post critic Candice Frederick contrarily said the film only serves to "kick up a lot of dust around controversial topics without actually examining or even adequately portraying any of them.”

What To Watch For

How the movie continues to perform. "Civil War" opened in 3,395 theaters on Friday and so far has a domestic gross of $25.7 million, more than $50 million less than the $77.1 million earned by "Everything, Everywhere" in its theatrical run in 2022.

Key Background

The 2024 box office has suffered under poor expectations brought by last year's Hollywood strikes, fewer films slated for release and " waning moviegoer sentiment. " Last year's box office, spurred by the mega success of films like "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer," was the best performance seen since the start of the pandemic with $9 billion domestically. Studio executives have said they expect the 2024 box office to only reach about $8 billion, largely because of the delay of several high-dollar films due to actors and writers strikes last year. Analytics firm Gower Street this week predicted theater revenues will hit $32.3 billion worldwide, according to the Hollywood Reporter , down from last year's earnings of $33.9 billion. So far, the best domestically performing film of the year is "Dune: Part Two," pushed from a 2023 release due to the strikes, with a $267.1 million gross. “Kung Fu Panda 4" is in the No. 2 spot with $167.6 million and "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" is third with $140 million.

Further Reading

Variety Box Office: 'Civil War' Makes $2.9 Million in Previews, Best Ever for an A24 Movie

Nytimes Alex Garland Answers the Question: Why Make a Film About Civil War Today?

Deadline Domestic Box Office Expected To Drop By $1 Billion In 2024 Amid Fewer Films & Waning Moviegoer Sentiment. But 31 Tentpoles Provide Hope.

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‘Girls State’ Review: One Nation, Under Girls

Balancing confidence with broad smiles, the high school students in this documentary understand that camaraderie goes hand in hand with political ambition.

By Natalia Winkelman

In 2018, over 1,000 boys gathered in Texas for an elaborate, weeklong program aimed at students interested in politics. This meeting of teenage minds — part of a countrywide initiative sponsored by the American Legion — was captured in the Sundance hit “ Boys State ,” a vérité chronicle of the event, where participants are elected by their peers to different positions in government.

Considering that movie’s success, it hardly comes as a surprise that the filmmakers, Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, used their momentum to produce the follow-up “Girls State.” The directors shot the documentary in 2022 at Lindenwood University, in St. Charles, Mo., where, the movie repeatedly notes, it’s the first time that the boys and girls groups are holding their events simultaneously on the same campus.

If you are imagining coed frivolity or drama, though, think again: These motivated girls are only concerned about the boys insofar as their proximity highlights the lack of parity between their programs. We meet Emily Worthmore, one of the film’s central subjects, as she ticks off achievements. At Girls State, Emily, a conservative Christian, hopes to be elected governor, a goal she shares with the left-leaning Cecilia Bartin, who canvasses the lunchroom by shouting from a chair. Others, including Nisha Murali, eye seats on the program’s Supreme Court, which the attendees anticipate will hear an abortion case.

If the vibe of “Boys State” is that of a Young Republicans conference, the atmosphere at “Girls State” suggests a freshman orientation. By turns giddy and gutsy, the students share in communal songs, icebreakers and empowerment sessions. They seem to intuit that camaraderie goes hand in hand with political ambition, and that they shouldn’t take the curriculum, or themselves, too seriously. Here, cute selfies and résumé building receive equal attention.

Modesty, sympathy, generosity — these are valuable qualities in life and not necessarily in documentary cinema, where tension often acts as a narrative engine. The film tries to complicate its sororal ethos by pointing to the ways in which women are socialized to strive for perfection and avoid raising a stink. But as the film goes on to track a series of frictionless exercises in campaigning, litigation and reporting, one wishes there were more complex ideas introduced in tandem.

“Girls State” uncovers a fascinating division early on after Emily remarks that she has no trouble identifying the girls who lean liberal. “Maybe they’re just,” she pauses, searching for a diplomatic term. “Louder?” The filmmakers pair this observation with a shot in which a cluster of attendees, led by Cecilia, joyfully chant Pitbull lyrics while Emily and others watch from the side.

How is this new generation of young women from both sides of the aisle making their voices heard? What qualities do they prize in their leaders? And what qualities are they learning to prize in themselves?

These questions linger before they are eventually subsumed into the movie’s broader, blander portrait of female rapport and resilience. “Girls State” endears, but it also leaves viewers with the sense that, for a film about young women eager to take on the world’s challenges, the movie could stand to tackle a few more.

Girls State Not Rated. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch on Apple TV+ .

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One girl was asked about a significant Supreme Court case and picked “the one with Johnny Depp and Amber Heard .”  Someone thought it was a good idea to have the opening night icebreaker activities include a bracelet station and cupcake decorating. And yet, the worst political judgment in “Girls State,” the documentary follow-up to the award-winning “ Boys State ,” is the decision of the Governor of Missouri to appear at the ceremonial swearing-in for the high school boys’ gathering, ignoring the girls’ meeting at the same time and in the same location. It is not the only disparity between the two programs. 

Boys State, sponsored since the 1930s by the American Legion, and Girls State, sponsored since the 1940s by the American Legion Auxiliary, are programs in every state but Hawaii that bring high school students together for a week to create a government, including appointment of a Supreme Court and election of a governor. Like its predecessor, this film is perceptive about these impressive young women who display dedication, seriousness of purpose, and genuine public-spiritedness. It also shows us some endearing naivete (one says she wants to be President of the United States, a broadcast journalist, and a rock star), and their embarrassingly accurate imitation of what they have absorbed from careful observation of some of the failures of our national politics. At least a few of the participants figured out that teachers may tell you a candidate gets more votes by showing competence and reliability and a forthright statement of policies and priorities, but they have seen they can do better with a rousing speech about how right and powerful and deserving the voters are.

This film was made in the spring of 2022, just after the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft decision in the Dobbs case, showing that the Court planned to overturn the right to abortion, but before the decision was announced. Understandably, this was a topic of intense interest for the teenage girls gathering to debate the most complicated and controversial issues of policy and politics. Indeed, one of the film’s highlights is the extremely sophisticated and thoughtful challenge to Missouri law requiring counseling before an abortion that is the issue in Girls State’s sole Supreme Court case, expertly argued by two young women and thoughtfully considered by seven robed “justices.” One of the film’s most vibrant characters, Tochi Ihekona, from an immigrant Nigerian family, ably argues in support of the law, contrary to her personal views. 

The film begins some historic photos of important political gatherings, each featuring just one woman, including Justice Sandra Day O’Connor with her colleagues and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the Oval Office. And then the first speech we hear from the Girls State podium frames the issue in the present. One of the young women tells the attendees that she wants to be like Glynis Johns in “Mary Poppins,” calling for women’s suffrage in a “soft, fluttery voice” that “exudes strength.” “She is powerfully feminine,” the speaker continues, cautioning her fellow participants to resist the temptation to get loud. 

There is a strong and pervasive sense of solidarity in the large group. They may be competitive, but they are still sorting through their views. They listen respectfully to each other, in one case while brushing and braiding one girl’s hair. “My dream scenario is kumbaya,” one says, as they seek a broader consensus, in contrast to the boys, many of whom who were more focused on politics than governance. The girls are sensitive to unfairness, increasingly impossible to ignore in this first-time combination of the boys’ and girls’ programs at the same time and place. The boys are allowed to go shirtless while the girls have a dress code that was outmoded forty years ago. And then there are the cupcakes and being ignored by the governor. A disappointed candidate triumphs as an investigative journalist, asking tough questions despite being told that the two programs were “incompatible for comparison,” and coming up with some startling revelations showing that comparison was not only compatible but long overdue. It is genuinely thrilling to see their integrity, passion, and conviction that they can and must do better. They've got my vote.

Nell Minow is the Contributing Editor at RogerEbert.com.

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