A very delayed excuse for a review of Red State (2011)

More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2012
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

10 March

Yes, well... What follows - more of an excuse of a review, than for one - has been lurking on my desktop* for a very long time, and, when I opened it just now, didn't even turn out to be the limerick that, I thought, was the best part of my response to this screening at last year's Festival (yes, some six months ago).

I have tidied and tarted it up, but it remains what it is: incomplete (if only I had that limerick!)


* Contains spoilers *

Can one ever be prepared for Kevin Smith? I don’t think so. (He probably isn’t himself.)

So I don’t think that, just because I hadn’t done my homework and managed to watch Clerks (1994) my companion at the screening was at an advantage: the world into which we were plunged was one of proud intolerance, casual killings, being right (in more than one sense) in the face of everything, and prepared to fight to the death. Not much scope for humour there.

My friend enjoyed what Smith, despite all odds, did wring from the situation by way of comedy at the end, but I was less sure – being unsure is not a good foundation for comedy, unless it is one involving a nervous kind of tittering.


Where will I go next, if I feel in need of searching out Smith? Well, I could investigate Dogma (1999), the one whose poster owes more than a little to (the work of) Gilbert and George, but why should I watch Damon team up again with Affleck? That said, Alan Rickman and Salma Hayek are both in it…


End-notes

* Which we know doesn't mean that thing that the computer - or part of it - stands on, because we call that 'my desk', and 'top' never has anything to do with it!


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Those CFF events (so far...)

7 September

Thursday 15

4.45 Ace In The Hole

8.00 Opening film: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (sold out)

Friday 16

12.45 Tomboy

3.15 Rembrandt Fecit 1669 (Jos S.)

8.00 The Illusionist (Jos S.)

11.00 The Day The Earth Caught Fire - decide on the night

Saturday 17

12.45 Jess + Moss

3.00 Black Butterflies

8.15 Jos Stelling in Conversation (Q&A)

10.30 Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark

Sunday 18

3.15 No Trains No Planes (Jos S.)

5.45 White White World

8.15 Burnout

Monday 19

1.00 Bombay Beach

3.30 The Camera That Changed The World + another

5.45 A Useful Life

10.30 Sympathy For Mr Vengeance - decide on the night

Tuesday 20

8.15 Drive

11.00 Red State - decide on the night

Wednesday 21

3.15 As If I Am Not There

8.15 Dimensions (sold out)

11.00 Wild Side - decide on the night

Thursday 22

12.30 The Seventh Seal

11.00 Bullhead - decide on the night

Friday 23

3.30 Jo For Jonathan

6.00 The Nine Muses

8.15 Gerhard Richter: Painting

10.30 Red White & Blue - decide on the night

Staurday (?) 24

12.30 Kosmos

8.00 Tyrannosaur

10.45 Guilty Of Romance - decide on the night

Sunday 25

3.15 Sleeping Beauty

6.00 Surprise Movie (probably sold out)

8.30 Closing film: The Look