On Sunday, writer/director/podcast star/entrepreneur Kevin Smith’s new film, Red State opened at the Sundance Film Festival. Initial reactions to the film have been mixed, but most agree that the political/horror film is unlike anything Smith has done to date. For weeks, Internet movie bloggers—those folks who somehow make a living at it—have been dissecting Smith’s tweets and came to the conclusion he was planning to auction off the film immediately after the screening. How much would it go for? Would the film, which stars Academy Award frontrunner Melissa Leo, open immediately? How would Smith fare at Sundance over 15 years after getting his start there with Clerks?
It turned out Smith had another trick up his sleeve: he sold Red State—to himself. He then announced he would tour the film this spring to 12 large venues across the country with the goal of making back at least half of the film’s slightly less than $4 million cost. Red State will open to a wider audience in October under the distribution of his own studio. Oh, and he announced after his next film—a love letter to hockey called Hit Somebody—that he would retire from directing to help others get their movies made.
The reason Smith is doing this is simple: whether you love or hate his films, there’s little argument that he’s an old school independent filmmaker. He’s efficient. His films often cost less than $5 million. You don’t hear about his shoots going over schedule or budget. In this day and age, that’s an anomaly. Every project is a labor of love and Red State is no exception.
To Smith, these numbers and facts simply don’t add up.
After Smith announced his plans for Red State, some bloggers and entertainment reporters missed the point. There were Twitter rants and rages over Smith’s perceived subterfuge. They wanted an auction! They wanted bloodshed! They wanted to go back to their safe corners and speculate if Red State would be the joke Cop-Out has become! Instead they got an idea. Parts of it aren’t groundbreaking (indies like Bubba Ho-Tep have toured the country before), but others (Smith retiring to throw his indie cred and expertise at a studio to help others break into filmmaking) are at least interesting and have the potential to create a ripple effect in the independent world. That’s a good thing. While plenty of truly independent films still exist, many touring the larger festivals are just Big Studio productions packaged under sub-house names. This isn’t to say these offerings aren’t any good, but they aren’t ‘independent’ in the spirit of the word.
I have my doubts that Smith can pull off what he is proposing on a wide scale (that is, on films other than his own), but it’s exciting he’s trying. Smith, again and again, has proven that his art is his passion. Sometimes that art takes the form of two guys hanging out in front of a convenience store or an archangel trying to find a loophole back into Heaven, but, as they say, art is subjective—it’s to the viewer to decide whether it has merit. And to Smith’s credit, he has always owned who he is—a film fan with a blue streak and a working class background with a penchant for writing dialogue. Despite his detractors (and if the Internet is to be believed…he has many), Smith has built a tidy career for himself. He tries new things (Red State; directing a studio picture he didn’t write with Cop-Out), but, ultimately, stays true to who he is and who he knows his fans want him to be.
The other fascinating thing about Smith is how completely accessible he is—something that, for him, I imagine can be a blessing and a curse. He waged a very public war (with his over 1.5 million followers not always coming down on his side) with SouthWest Airlines last year in “Too Fat to Fly”-gate. He spills the beans on just about everything in his life—from how he met his future wife to being intimidated by Bruce Willis while shooting Cop-Out—in hilarious Q&As he holds around the country. He has built a podcast network—called Smodcast—with popular offerings hosted by Smith and others from the View Askew universe. He once protested his own film (Dogma) claiming to be offended by it even though he had never seen it. For the premiere of Red State at Sundance, he riled up members of the Westborough Baptist Church (which the villains in the film are based upon) so they would come and picket. Like in his films, Smith likes poking fun at the seriousness of life by making a joke of almost everything.
Smith is the P.T. Barnum of the film world and I don’t mean that as an insult. He’s a master of promotion and has continued to work seemingly on his own terms. He owns his reputation—whether that’s as a celebrated young auteur at Sundance or the guy who got thrown off an airplane. He doesn’t apologize, but he has the potential to surprise—and that’s what he did this past Sunday. Kevin Smith is his own industry; his own reality show.
I, for one, am looking forward to what happens next.
