July 9, 2025
by Carla Hay
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.
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.