Sovereign (2025)

I fully expect Nick Offerman to get aan Oscar nomination for his role as Jerry Kane, who along with his son Joe (Jacob Trembly) end up in a violent shoot out with police who didn't recognize his claim to being a sovereign citizen.

Told from the point of view of Joe, the film follows the last few weeks in the lives of the pair. They are fighting to hold on to their house, but it isn't working. Jerry's lectures on acting as a sovereign citizen (esentially they feel that the US government has been co-oped and as such does not have authority over them.) are not being attended. Money is non existent. Some run ins with the law put them on the radar of the sheriff (Dennis Quaid) and it all comes to ahead when some state troopers stop them.

It should be stated that the events depicted are not the complete story. Things have been changed. I mention this because people always assume the movie is the gospel truth when it isn't. Having done some reading on the case after the fact I'm not so certain that Joe was moving away from sovereignty as he is in the film.

However the film works on it's own terms. It's so masterfully put together that it works despite making some cliched choices and some ticky box turns.  You will forget that the film opens with a radio call of a witness recounting the shooting that sets the tragedy in motion, an event that happens later in the film with no one around. Serious, you won't care that this film plays out very similarly to similar stories. (Of coure it doesn't hurt that this is a story that feels part of the moment)

The reason this film works so will is the cast. Everyone shines. The real stan out here is Nick Offer man who has put himself in  the running for an Oscar. The point where Offerman earns the Oscar nom is in the moments when the bravado falls away and you see him as a scared little man who doesn't really have a clue. There is a sad heartbreak in the final section as he acts with his whole being. As Michael Caine says the acting is in the eyes and Offerman's confusion and implosion is written in letters ten feet tall in his eyes. Sure his voice and manner is his patented smart ass know it all, but his face and eyes give us a real person instead of what had been a caricature.

I understand why director Bill Lustig hounded me to see the film at Tribeca..

Recommended.