Perhaps you missed this independently produced and distributed film penned and directed by Kevin Smith, but it's out and available now for folks who were curious, and then promptly forgot about it.

This movie is a far cry from Smith's previous forays into film and, it should be noted, is not a comedy.  It's his first majorly adult attempt at social commentary, and if that either worries or intrigues you then you're probably in the right one way or the other.

He structured the movie into three main categories of commentary: Sex, Religion, and Politics.  In fact the movie feels like three separate story lines that bleed into each other by the introduction of minor characters who take prominence.  It's sort of like a condensed version of The Wire.  Because of this structure I'll be breaking the film down into these sections.  The summation of the movie is a group of friends get lured into an online sex offer that turns out to lead them to the discovery of a militant religious order.

Sex:  This is a sort of muddled section of the movie, though it certainly has a vulgarly authentic feel to it when the younger characters speak to one another most of the dialogue from the adults seems forced and too often trite.  Smith still has a knack for writing youthful characters and grown-up man-children, but he struggled to fit a lot of sex and morality conversation into the movie that really led to a discussion on homosexuality as the principle point of morality.  This section seems poised to turn the film into a torture-porn sort of schlock fest reminiscent of Last House on the left, but then the movie shifts away from over-gore and starts to focus on the more Omni-present terror that is the spoken word.

Religion:  This is the weakest section of the film.  Smith's take on religion focused too heavily on militant Christianity and didn't feel broad enough.  While much of this had to do with his attempt to condense three major talking points into one movie I think he'd have been better off breaking off the three points into separate tales and giving them each a much more in depth investigation.  The specific point that led to the final act (Politics) was handled ham-fistedly and I expect was a stumbling block in the writing process.

Politics:  This is the strongest portion of the movie.  Smith actually did a pretty solid balancing act of morality in government work in that it showed the fluxuating dissent and acceptance of following and issuing orders.  It also showed a level of maturity and patience in Smith's directing in a style that's compellingly different to his established body of work, all this paired with an excellent, if too short performance by John Goodman who embraces his character and portrays a depth of reality that should cause other actors to take notice and feel embarrassment about their work with similar characters.

All in all the movie is a little tough to watch in the middle because it drags, but once it picks up the last third is very interesting and shows that Smith is willing to push himself through artistic progression, and his decision to self-distribute shows that he's willing to do so in spite of the confines of the industry itself.  While I won't say that Smith "hit one out of the park" with this attempt, I think he earned a "ground rule double" as it, at the very least, made me interested to see his follow up, which he teased during the end credits indicating that nearly the entire cast would return.

I rate this movie a 2.11 out of 3.14