Comments

1
Ordered it on On Demand from Comcast. I'm a pretty big fan of his earlier flicks (Dogma is sooo under appreciated if would make the Golgothan shit demon cry) and listen pretty regularly to Smodcast and a few other shows on the network (but the quality of his shows has diminished in the last year of so).

So, Red State was pretty enjoyable. I wasn't really terrified at any point and I think he tried to tread the line between real world crazies and "movie" crazies / monsters and he faltered because the church characters were too over the top to be taken seriously or real and too real to be taken as movie monsters (ala early Jason, Freddy). There were a few surprising moments (as in surprising to see that character killed at that moment) which heightened suspense in the build toward the end, but the end of the conflict was silly and out of nowhere because nothing had been set up at all (a little foreshadowing would have been easy to insert early on). And kind of like the church members, the government agents were kind of in limbo between real characters with emotions / motivations on the one hand and bad government agent types on the other hand.

Oh, and if you've listened to any of his stuff over the last year of so, it pretty much is all about him and making him bank. I think he realized he did peak in the movie business and has a captured audience so he's taking full advantage of that (and why not, they've always bought the merch, dvds, special editions, etc.) Also, as demonstrated by his Evening With dvds, the dudes a genuinely funny story teller so I just home that he continues to have funny stories to tell as he slides out of the mainstream in the film business.
2
Jesus, could you maybe explain exactly what the distribution model for the movie WAS? What exactly was so unconventional about it? I like Kevin Smith, but I've never even heard of this movie before. What's it about, maybe? That might be a good sentence to slip into this article.
3
KEVIN SMITH IS JUST ANGRY BECAUSE HE'S FAT AND CAN'T FLY ON AIRPLANES. NUFF SAID.
4
@Reymont: Red State's distribution model is explained in the piece I linked to.
5
My understanding is that the movie is in the black, so if you call making a movie and making money on it a total failure then yeah he has failed. I wish the initial tour complete with Q and A had come to portland, and I almost drove up to Seattle to see it. Now I wish I had, because the reason it won't have a wide release in theaters is that no distributor wants to pick it up, largely in my opinion because they are scared of another model coming along and displacing them so they are trying to damage the clear success this movie would be.
6
I've heard of it, in the same way that I'd "heard" of "Dogma" by seeing the ending credits of "Clerks", but I didn't know it was an actual thing that was out and that there was some funky distribution model to it or that John Goodman was in it or... basically anything.
7
Well, essentially the distribution model was for Smith to talk about the movie on his twitter, podcasts, etc. In lieu of having a distribution company purchase the rights and advertise it, he self distributed and took it on a 15 to 20 city "road show" back in the spring where he would show the movie and do a Q&A afterwords, charging $60 on up depending on the venue. So, of course all of his fans knew about this tour and he essentially made his money (or the investors in the production) back from the roadshow. Then, the movie was released for a week or so in LA so that it could qualify for Oscar consideration (he's pushing hard for the lead actor to get a nomination) and then it was released on video on demand services and I think it will be shown in select, small, independent theaters around the country. He has talked about doing more road shows (with Q&A's) as long as the demand is there (and given his audience, it will be). So, instead of having a traditional distribution company spend boatloads on advertising, putting it into wide release, and have the movie essential break even or bomb, he decided to do a small release himself with individual theater bookings and video on demand and dvd release.

And the movie is centered on a Fred Phelps like character as the head of a Westboro Baptist like church going all batshit crazy on some horny teens and then the AFT going all Waco batshit crazy on the church.
8
I haven't heard anything about it.
9
got it on on demand, i heard of it on O&A. I thought it was pretty decent.
10
I saw Red State - I think it was an advertisement on Youtube and the subsequent advertisement that prompted me to pirate the film about 2 weeks ago. There was no way I was risking even $5 on it, though looking back I certainly would have walked out a $15 Regal theater happy.

I didn't notice that it was directed by Kevin Smith - that's shocking. He's the last person I would have expected to be associated with this film. I also had no idea about the distribution method, which explains why none of my film savvy friends mentioned it to me, and why no political-types mentioned it to me as well.

I'm sort of a film buff – I ran the Akria Kurosawa Myspace page back when Myspace was relevant, and eventually got 10,000+ friends. Now I’m creating a collection of pre-1950’s films. In addition, I’ve been involved in several low-budget productions here in PDX.

I enjoyed the hell out of Red State. It's probably the most interesting film I've seen this year, certainly the most provocative and conversational. Most surprising, I think that neither "Red" or "Blue" voters would be turned off by the film. I’m a politically active person, and I checked out the film to see what sort of lies were being spewed about the country, only to find a good deal of truth. I imagine my family in Texas saying "This is why we don't trust the government" and my friends in Portland saying, "This is why we don't trust Texas - or the government." I think you could show Red State in any part of the country and anyone could talk about the film afterwards, and the state of the nation afterwards, without regard to political lines. Red State is political, deeply political, but unique that it’s so appealing in a deeply divided time. This film was a classic tragedy in a lot of ways, and a true tragedy film is rare in America. The whole film overall seemed low budget, lacking dramatic/artistic shots & music, though this is almost a signature of Smith’s films. The acting was solid, though a couple parts I really didn’t understand the character’s motivation (he should have shot when he escaped, not just ran!). I know much of my family would have been offended by a lack of balanced religious element in Red State, but only because they’re crazy fundamentalist Christians. The only folks who wouldn’t enjoy this film on political grounds are the last bastion of Americans who unquestionably love the government or President Obama/Republican Party (I think of my parents) – those folks will *hate* the film.
11
Saw about ten minutes of it at a friends house before passing out (4 AM movie start time). It looked good, I definitely want to finish it.
12
Movie made for $4 million, made $1 million on first tour round the country, made $5 million from international distribution sales, made $10 million via all the on-demand channels. Yeah, collossal failure! Less than $5000 spent on marketing, and only because it was required by the Academy to qualify for awards next year. I saw it on demand the first day, thought it was fantastic. Rollar coaster ride, never know where it is going next, many surprises and visually 180 degree turn from anything he's done before. I recommend you see it, as should anyone truly interested in a film like no other.

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