Sovereign (2025)

I gave it an 8/10, and I do think it's a compelling and interesting film. I'd go so far as to say it's one of the best indie films of 2025 so far.

But holy moly is it hard to watch.

Watching the treatment of the teenage character by his father should give anyone with a pulse a strong sense of discomfort, and it's not out of line to say that much of what we see her is abusive, even as the teenager takes clandestine steps to disentangle himself from his father's web and pursue a more normal adolescence.

This isn't something you want to watch on a beautiful, sunny day as it might just ruin your day, but it's worth your time.

I think everything about this is good. I didn't really like it, though. Performances were great. Some good yelling. A little too much yelling. I feel like this is an Oscar attempt. Or a lot of wreathed indie festival badges.

Poor kid. Interesting things happen. The ending is unnecessary. Who is this about? I don't care about that man at all. Beautiful minivan. Bit of a shame they blow their load on the cover. Sovereign 2 will feature the baby.

Baby has grown up and is mostly focusing on boss level scammer sovereigns and the corrupt preachers they have joined forces with. They operate under the dominion of god. Ze operates under the dominion of revenge.

In a time when it has become increasingly more prevalent to mistrust what those in officialdom have to say, it’s understandable how hardened resistance would arise in response, especially in light of recent events. But does this give individuals the right to willfully disregard widely accepted, reasonable social and legal standards in favor of their own questionable interpretations of these matters in the name of personal freedom? It’s a divisive issue, to be sure, one where opposing forms of extremism come into heated conflict with one another, often with disastrous consequences. That’s the issue raised in writer-director Christian Swegel’s powerful, fact-based debut feature. This gripping true crime psychological thriller chronicles the 2010 shootings of two police officers in West Memphis, Arkansas, during a traffic stop involving Jerry Kane (Nick Offerman), a vocal member of the Sovereign Citizens belief system, and his teenage son, Joe (Jacob Tremblay). As an ardent critic of the government, the former roofer who became an activist to protest what he saw as questionable official policies and practices attempted to fight the system and recruit followers with legal theories that aggressively and egregiously pushed the boundaries of credible interpretation in an effort to justify his own beliefs and actions. However, given his record of prior infractions and growing sense of personal frustration, his circumstances turned volatile, impacting not only himself, but also his perplexed, impressionable son, who struggled mightily to understand his father’s philosophy, one based on a blend of contrived resistance, zealous gun ownership advocacy and skewed interpretations of Christian thought. This riveting, largely overlooked offering from 2025 is an undeniably difficult watch (especially now), but it raises poignant questions about how far is too far on both sides of a very loaded coin. It also features two of the year’s strongest but overshadowed performances by Offerman and Independent Spirit Award nominee Tremblay, along with capable portrayals by a fine ensemble including the likes of Dennis Quaid, Martha Plimpton and Nancy Travis, all backed by a mesmerizing, unnerving award-nominated screenplay. Some may find the protagonist’s convoluted and cryptic legal and philosophical ramblings a bit hard to follow at times, but that shows the depth of his radical, single-minded convictions, regardless of how unconventional they may seem to most of us. It’s sad that this release is perhaps best characterized as one of those pictures that truly is a movie for our times, a troubling commentary on the current state of affairs in this country. But, if conditions are ever to change in meaningful ways, we must first confront ourselves and the beliefs and actions that drive us lest we slip into anarchy and chaos from which there may be no return.

More unsettling than what is depicted on screen in writer and director Christian Swegel's debut **SOVEREIGN**, is the horror of realizing that I personally know people who embrace the nationalist, sovereign ethos.

A long and ignominious line of homegrown American malcontents from Timothy McVeigh to Ted Kaczynski remains a worrying trend on our society -- and we would be wise to pay closer attention.

In Swegel's film, we are given, frustratingly, very little knowledge of why the film's protagonist Jerry Kane (played brilliantly by Nick Offerman) would gravitate towards an anti-tax movement (specifically the Posse Comitatus movement) -- other than he has a recalcitrant aversion to authority of any kind and has thoroughly immersed himself in legalize rhetoric to obfuscate any interactions with agents of the law from the police to the courts.

Under Jerry's watchful and controlling eye, is his son Joe -- played by an unrecognizable Jacob Trembley, who is the recipient of his father's tutelage in all things antigovernment. As a court-ordered foreclosure looms for the father and son, a sequence of shocking events unfolds that will leave anyone viewing the film numb.

Trembley plays the role of a caged bird who, but for his father's extremism, would otherwise have a normal adolescence such as attending public school, and preparing for college instead of being 'homeschooled' and accompanying his father on small lecture circuits around the southeast of America to meet other frustrated citizens on the margins of society and further foment their anger towards the municipal forces in local government.

But as push comes to shove, the terrible toll that a parent's influence has on their child is laid bare in this tragic tale based on true events in 2010 in West Memphis, Arkansas that left more questions than clear answers.

I am reminded of famed 20th century English poet Philip Larkin's blunt assessment on the pitfalls of generational trauma between parents and children in his 1971 poem THIS BE THE VERSE:

> ***They fuck you up, your mum and dad.\
> They may not mean to, but they do.\
> They fill you with the faults they had\
> And add some extra, just for you.***

> ***But they were fucked up in their turn\
> By fools in old-style hats and coats,\
> Who half the time were soppy-stern\
> And half at one another’s throats.***

> ***Man hands on misery to man.\
> It deepens like a coastal shelf.\
> Get out as early as you can,\
> And don’t have any kids yourself.***

What ever you think Swegel's **SOVERIGN** is trying tell us is entirely subjective -- as the messaging remains as murky as the event it is based on, but as far as the performances go from Offerman, Tremblay and Dennis Quaid (playing Police Chief John Bouchart) -- there is much to admire.