Sovereign

While it's script could improve regarding it's structure and pacing, it's a slow-burn yet good exploration character study about the individuals who are anti-government "sovereign citizens" filled with a strong emotional and tenseful atmosphere, good direction, and two great performances from Nick Offerman and Jacob Trembaly.

What director Christian Swegal does well is that capturing the essence of what sovereign citizens are like, capturing their selfish and controversial beliefs without feeling forced or messy. The direction on the tone, the writing and what the purposes for the characters and choices were realistic and tense. Including great themes about the poison settings of indoctrination amongst people and how it can cause an affect on society. Alongside with the good camerawork and soundtrack, as mentioned, Offerman and Trembaly provides great performances to their chilling and uneasy characters, allowing them to have some great dialogue moments and tension between the topics of father and son.

Regarding it's faults, the emotional layer on certain elements and some writing moments did feel a bit short. As if there were patterns and decisions that could have been a bit better. But overall, it's strong debut direction and atmosphere showcases the extremist and unfortunate relevance of today's society in the United States.

My daughter and I are both attorneys who lecture on the "sovereign citizen" movement. We're also published in this area. This is about as close as you'll get to this one horrible case based on facts. Other sov cits are mostly down on their luck looking to content creators who hold seminars on line or in hotels as seen here. They are found in 11 countries and NONE OF THEIR METHODS HAVE EVER WORKED! No one ever got off at trial, got paid by their "secret trust", saved their house or car. You need a license, registration & insurance & no, you're not "traveling" in "the private". Don't get taken in by it.

So apt for the world we are living and an important portrayal of an element of society that poses an eternal threat to that society.

Since reading about Timothy McVeigh years ago I've always been somewhat fascinated by the disassociated, those who drift further and further into their very own world of indoctrination and delusion. I know people of that ilk, albeit mild in nature by comparison. I'd imagine everyone knows at least one.

Contrary to other comments, I liked the pacing. The acting was excellent. Offerman totally convincing and memorable. Every conspiracy theorist should be made to watch movies like this to see where delusion can lead to.

I saw this movie in theaters with a group of friends, all of us born and raised here in the Midwest. Afterwards the mood was pretty somber because everyone in the group recognized scenes from their own family upbringing. The kid sitting in the backseat listening to Dad rant about the government, cops being trained to immediately rely on overwhelming force, all of it building a system that pushes normal people into potentially violent situations over and over again until eventually somebody pulls a trigger. If you grew up in a working last neighborhood, I can guarantee you're gonna recognize some family members in these characters and chances are that you'll sympathize with each of the main characters. It's a great movie, but it's not a fun movie to watch.

Whilst this is specifically about what in the uk would be "freemen of the land", it really feels like a critique of all the people you see online who repeat crazy stuff like climate change is made up, or cloud seeding caused floods etc etc the leads are solid and the story is engaging enough, i've given this a 9 to level out the people who will downvote this wrongly, it's actually more like a 7.

Worth reccomending to people who you know are confidently wrong on other subjects and see what they make of it, they aren't an easy group of people to communicate with and listening to them drone on about subjects they know nothing about is tedious, but who knows, maybe holding up a mirror may help.