Martha Plimpton Archives

July 9, 2025

by Carla Hay

Jacob Tremblay and Nick Offerman in “Sovereign” (Photo courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment)

“Sovereign” (2025)

Directed by Christian Swegal

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2010, in the United States, the dramatic film “Sovereign” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Latin people and black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Jerry Kane and his 15-year-old son present debt-elimination seminars for the anti-government sovereign citizen movement, and they become embroiled in increasingly dangerous law-breaking activities.

Culture Audience: “Sovereign” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, true crime movies and dramas about radical anti-government extremists.

Dennis Quaid in “Sovereign” (Photo courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment)

Based on true events, “Sovereign” is a tension-filled drama about the mental unraveling of an American anti-government extremist and the indoctrination of his teenage son. The movie has an effective depiction of disillusionment that spirals into violence. The discontent shown by the father isn’t entirely felt by the son, who begins to show indications that he doubts his father’s radical beliefs.

Written and directed by Christian Swegal, “Sovereign” is his feature-film directorial debut. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. “Sovereign,” which takes place in 2010, is based on the true story of widower Jerry Kane and his teenage son Joseph “Joe” Kane, whose fates are shown at the end of the movie. Jerry Kane and Joe Kane were part of the sovereign citizen movement, which believes that an individual’s rights supersede many government laws.

“Sovereign” (which was filmed in Arkansas) changes a few details in the movie from what happened in real life. In the movie, Jerry Kane (played by Nick Offerman) and Joe Kane (played by Jacob Tremblay) have life-changing encounters with law enforcement in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In real life, these encounters took place in West Memphis, Arkansas. In the movie, Joe is 15 years old, not 16 years old, which was the age that the real Joe Kane was at the time certain events took place in 2010.

Jerry is constantly angry at the government and believes that governments can’t be trusted because “they lie to you.” He speaks in deliberate and measured tones, that can turn into shouting when he loses his temper. Jerry has a parenting style where he praises introverted Joe (his only son) but also gruffly teaches Joe to follow and believe everything that Jerry says. Jerry calls Joe a “boy genius” but Jerry has contempt for Jerry’s deceased father. Jerry tells Joe that Jerry’s father “turned into a coward” who believed in following government rules.

Joe’s mother died when Joe was 10 years old. The movie doesn’t state her cause of death, but in real life, she died of pneumonia. “That’s the one thing your mom and I did right,” Jerry tells Joe. “We made you. You are a true love child.” There are indications that Joe is starting to doubt what Jerry teaches, but Joe’s needs to have his father’s respect and approval prevent Joe from openly questioning Jerry.

People in the sovereign citizen movement don’t believe in paying taxes or following laws and other government rules. One of the things that Jerry tries to instill into Joe is that as state citizens, they don’t have to follow federal laws. But Jerry also comes up with excuses not to follow state laws too. For example, Jerry doesn’t have a driver’s license because he thinks he has the right to drive without a license simply because he knows how to drive.

In the beginning of the movie, the Kanes’ mortgaged house is in foreclosure. A financial institution called Sun Mutual Bank will seize ownership of the house, which will be auctioned off in 30 days. Jerry owes $38,400 plus interest to the bank.

“The bank is just a clearinghouse,” Jerry tells Joe. “They don’t hold the underlying note.” Jerry says that he’s going to file an affidavit of truth to get back control of the house. Jerry has trained Joe (who is homeschooled) on what to do if officials show up at the house when Jerry isn’t there. Later in the movie, Jerry is shown representing himself in court. It goes as badly as you would expect.

Jerry used to be a roofer, but he currently makes money by doing traveling seminars with Joe on how to eliminate debt. These seminars are really just lectures on the sovereign citizenship movement and how to avoid paying debts by ignoring laws. These speaking appearances preach to the converted or try to recruit those who are curious and interested.

Jerry and Joe wear white suits at these seminars, as if they’re actual preachers. But what they preach is a radical form of government resistance that includes telling followers that the name that the government has for someone is merely a “straw man” that doesn’t reflect that person’s true identity. Jerry says during a seminar lecture: “What we’re after is not fighting. It’s conquering. I mean, I don’t want to kill anybody. But if they keep messing with me, I’m afraid that’s what it’s going to come down to.”

Meanwhile, as Jerry is mentoring Joe in the business of being a recruiter in the sovereign citizen movement, another father is also mentoring his son who is in his father’s same line of work. John Bouchart (played by Dennis Quaid) is police chief of the Tulsa Police Department, where his son Adam Bouchart (played by Thomas Mann) is a police officer. John, who has a no-nonsense personality on the job, first encounters Jerry in a police interrogation room after Jerry gets pulled over on the road for traffic violations and is arrested.

Jerry’s financial struggles and his feud with the bank and set off a chain of events that turns into a tragedy. Jerry’s rage at the government also has a lot to do with his troubled background (including previous criminal record) that is mentioned but not fully detailed in the movie. Jerry seems to blame government for the death of his baby daughter named Charity, who was born several years before John was born. A scene in the movie shows Joe getting upset when Jerry prays out loud to Charity while Joe is in the same room.

In another scene in the movie Jerry mentions that he has an addictive personality and he’s been “clean and sober” for several years. Whatever substances that Jerry was addicted to in the past, “Sovereign” shows with unflinching intensity that he is now addicted to the sovereign citizen movement. One of his enablers is a sovereign citizen movement follower named Lesley Anne (played by Martha Plimpton), who has a “friends with benefits” relationship with Jerry. Lesley Anne doesn’t hesitate to bail Jerry out of jail when he calls her for help.

Because “Sovereign” is intensely focused on the relationship between Jerry and Joe, female characters the movie aren’t fully developed. John and Adam have happy marriages, but John’s wife Patty Bouchart (played by Nancy Travis) and Adam’s wife Jess Bouchart (played by Ruby Wolf) are stereotypical loyal wives of cops. Joe has a crush on a teenager named Candace Jeffers (played by Kezia DaCosta), whom he keeps track of on social media but he’s afraid to tell his father about this crush.

Thanks to capable filmmaking and standout performances from Offerman and Tremblay, “Sovereign” skillfully gives viewers a sense of the emotionally claustrophobic environment that Jerry puts Joe in at home and during their travels. The film is also a study in irony, because even though Jerry frequently rants about how oppressive the government is, Jerry has a very oppressive way of raising Joe. Some of the movie’s pacing is a little slow, but “Sovereign” builds an atmospheric tone of dread by showing that whatever war Jerry thinks he’s in, there are ultimately no real winners.

Briarcliff Entertainment will release “Sovereign” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on July 11, 2025.

February 6, 2021

by Carla Hay

“Mass”

Directed by Fran Kanz

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the dramatic film “Mass” features an almost all-white cast (with one African American) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two men and two women, who have a tragedy in common, gather in a church meeting room to air out their differences.

Culture Audience: “Mass” will appeal primarily to people interested in dialogue-heavy movies about grief, mental illness and coping with the violent death of a loved one.

Ann Dowd and Reed Birney in “Mass” (Photo by Ryan Jackson-Healy)

The title of the movie “Mass” can have a double meeting. On the one hand, the movie, which takes entirely at or near an Episcopal church, can refer to the religious ceremony called a mass. On the other hand, it could refer to the deadly mass shooting that has directly affected two men and two women, who have gathered at an Episcopal church in an unnamed U.S. city to have a difficult meeting about this tragedy. (The movie was actually filmed in Hailey, Idaho, but almost all of the movie’s scenes take place indoors.) Fran Kanz, who is known as an actor in the 2012 horror flick “The Cabin in the Woods” and the sci-fi TV series “JourneyQuest,” makes an impressive debut as a feature-film director in “Mass,” a movie which he also wrote. “Mass” had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

“Mass” is a very well-written and intense film that relies entirely on the actors to make or break the authenticity in this gripping story. The movie centers on four people who have a painful discussion about a tragedy that has left them emotionally broken and damaged. Before these four people meet at the church, the story unfolds in layers, as viewers see a church office manager named Judy (played by Breeda Wool) nervously preparing for these visitors to gather in a room that has been reserved specifically for this meeting.

Judy asks a college-age assistant named Anthony (played by Kagen Albright) to help her get the room ready. Soon, a woman named Kendra (played by Michelle N. Carter) arrives to inspect the room and make sure that it’s appropriate for the meeting. Kendra seems to have been the one to choose the church as a meeting place. Judy is eager to please Kendra, who looks over the room in a business-like and no-nonsense manner.

The first clue that this meeting is about a traumatic, violent incident is when Kendra notices some stained-glass hanging decorations on the windows. Red is one of the decorations’ main colors. And from a distance, the red could look like bloodstains. Judy notices it too, and anxiously explains to Kendra that these stained-class decorations were made by some of the church kids. Judy says that the decorations could be removed before the visitors for the meeting get there. Kendra says it isn’t necessary.

Kendra is obviously the meeting’s facilitator, but she tells Judy that she will not be in the room during the meeting, in order to give the people in the meeting their privacy. It’s another clue that the meeting is of a very sensitive and confidential nature. Is Kendra a social worker? A counselor? Someone else? It’s never really made clear what her occupation is, but in the brief time that she’s on screen, Kendra seems to have the role of someone who is supposed to remain neutral in something that seems to be controversial.

Who are the people who will be participating in this tension-filled meeting? The married couple that viewers see first are Gail and Jay Perry, who drove down from an unnamed city for this gathering. Gail (played by Martha Plimpton) and Jay (played by Jason Isaacs), who are in their 50s, drive up to the church and park their car outside. However, Gail gets nervous and tells Jay to drive away so she can have more time to brace herself for this meeting.

They park near a fenced field that has a red ribbon tied to the fence. The camera lingers on the ribbon. It’s an obvious sign that this was the site of a makeshift memorial. Who died and why are these four people meeting? All the clues are there: A violent death, a makeshift memorial, two couples having an emotional discussion together for the very first time.

Gail feels ready to go back to the church. And when Gail and Jay go back to the church, they are greeted warmly by Judy and Kendra. Based on Judy’s comments, she’s not so eager to meet the other two people who arrive next, although when they do arrive she has a forced, polite smile. The other two visitors are a divorced couple in their 60s. It’s obvious that they’re no longer together when they arrive separately and aren’t seen wearing wedding rings.

Former spouses Richard (played by Reed Birney) and Linda (played by Ann Dowd) haven’t seen each other in a while. Richard no longer lives in the area, because he said that he traveled by plane for this somber occasion. Later, he says he won’t be staying in the area for the rest of the day. Richard gives the impression that he’s a busy businessman, while the career backgrounds of Gail, Jay and Linda are never revealed. At one point in the story, Richard says that he isn’t religious, so meeting in a church is outside of his comfort zone.

Linda has brought a bouquet of wild flowers, which she offers to Gail as a gift. Gail declines to take the flowers but later changes her mind in order to not create any further tension. It’s another clue about where the hard feelings are between these four people. After some awkward small talk is exchanged, Kendra and Judy show Gail, Jay, Linda and Richard to the meeting room and leave the four visitors there to talk. Kendra says before she leaves them together, “I’m hopeful that we think this was a good thing to do by the time we leave here today.”

And that’s when the movie starts to peel back the layers of turmoil and trauma that have led to this excruciating meeting. It won’t be revealed in this review who died and who committed the mass murder. But it’s enough to say that those details come out in bits and pieces. And then the floodgates open with the blame, anger, sadness and confusion over how the murders could have been prevented.

What makes “Mass” so outstanding is that there isn’t a single line of dialogue or action that looks or sounds phony. Because 80% of the movie takes place in this one room, “Mass” could very much be a play. It’s not an easy film to watch for anyone who is very sensitive to the topic of mass murder. However, “Mass” presents an excellent story that looks at this type of tragedy from various perspectives of loved ones who are left behind.

All four of the main actors give stellar performances. However, Plimpton and Dowd shine the most because their characters Gail and Linda express their emotions more freely than the men do. “Mass” is also a raw look at different ways that people grieve and try to make sense of a senseless crime. And it’s also a realistic portrayal of survivor guilt and how people who didn’t cause the crime can still feel responsible for it.

Kanz’s directing style is as minimalist as his writing style is rich with naturalistic language. It’s a combination that works for the movie’s setting. And the movie greatly benefits from being well-cast with actors who never strike a false note with their characters. “Mass” is a movie that will linger in people’s memories long after they watch it. And it will be a story that will come to mind when people think about how mass murders cause untold traumas that don’t necessarily make headlines.

UPDATE: Bleecker Street will release “Mass” in select U.S. cinemas on October 8, 2021.

Tag: Martha Plimpton

Review: ‘Sovereign’ (2025), starring Nick Offerman, Jacob Tremblay, Thomas Mann, Nancy Travis, Martha Plimpton and Dennis Quaid

Review: ‘Mass’ (2021), starring Martha Plimpton, Jason Isaacs, Ann Dowd and Reed Birney