SOVEREIGN

As harrowing as it is heartbreaking, Sovereign is an absolute shellshock of a film from director Christian Swegal in his sophomore outing that takes a look at radical anti-establishment views in the heart of America, based on true events that took place in May of 2010.

I had not heard of Sovereign until a few weeks ago when its first trailer hit after the Tribeca film festival last month and the content of the film couldn’t be more perfectly, painfully or appropriately timed. The plot revolves around something that seems more and more prevalent in discussion in today’s social media day and age - Anti Government and Anti-Establishment rhetoric. A ‘sovereign state of citizenship’ as it is referred to by many.

Sovereign citizens believe that courts have no jurisdiction over people and that certain procedures (such as writing specific phrases on bills they do not want to pay) and loopholes can make one immune to government laws and regulations. They also regard most forms of taxation as illegitimate and reject Social Security/Social Insurance, driver's licenses, and vehicle registration. And therein lies the basis of our story about young Joe Kane and his father Jerry Kane.

Sovereign begins by introducing us to Joe Kane, played by the fantastic Jacob Tremblay. Joe is a seemingly quiet teenage boy, homeschooled and clearly yearning for more out of his adolescent life. Your heart instantly breaks for him because you can see that he is a smart kid yet is not allowed to use resources like public education because his father deems it to be a systematic waste of time. He is taken advantage of by his absentee father, as he cleans the yard, cleans the house, cooks dinner and does the dishes all the while his dad travels spreading the word on how to fight back against aggressors aka. The Banking or Judicial Systems.

As the film carries on, and Joe’s relationship begins to get more strained with his father, following several incidents of horrible parenting and bad judgment by Jerry, I found myself getting very emotional knowing that this is based on true events and I am sure this is still something that takes place somewhere every day. Sure, some liberties were probably taken for the story but at its heart, it's a story of a father and son’s struggle to find common ground and how undiagnosed mental health issues ripped apart not only one person's life but two.

Tremblay plays a very subdued role here, not really expressing much vocally but allowing his range to come through his eyes and face. It’s so powerfully mute that it stands out beautifully against Nick Offerman’s loud yet charming and unforgiving Jerry. Tremblay is the right person for this role because he still has that babyfaced demeanor to him even at age 18, and is believable as he plays tortured yet so stalwart to his father. I love seeing any Canadian get work in film and television and after almost a decade of getting steady roles, it is great to see Jacob continue to evolve as an actor.

Writer-Director Christian Swegal has done a great job at bringing this story to life, and using appropriate pacing to get the point across of how Jerry and Joe’s day to day life functions yet is falling apart at the same time - without overdoing either point. It could have gone one way or the other in terms of the story being told but instead Christian’s superb writing compliments his direction of the plot, especially as we find the father and son on the road and then in front of rooms of people buying into Jerry’s commanding language about sovereign citizenship, forestalling foreclosures and how the banks OWE you, not the other way around. Which leads me to the absolute MVP of the film and that is Nick Offerman.

In what I think is the performance of a lifetime, I have never seen Nick Offerman do anything better than this and every time he is on screen, especially in the scenes when he is speaking to small crowds of people, I was mesmerized. It’s so amazing to see an actor, at age 55 who has been in the film and television industry for 30+ years, continue to grow and become better and better at his craft year after year. I love everything about his performance and although this is an indie darling of a film from Briarcliff, I really hope Sovereign gets great word of mouth after its release and Offerman’s performance becomes the focal point of all that praise.

I once heard a quote that went something like “The scariest villains are the ones whose motivations you can understand”, and Jerry Kane seemed to be a real life embodiment of that. It’s incredible to hear some of the monologues that Nick Offerman’s Jerry gives because of writer Swegal’s choice to integrate some of Kane’s speeches from found footage. They are both thought provoking and convincing, oozing with intense charisma and timing. We are shown a Jerry that is dressed like a Pastor of the Lord looking to evangelize the crowd, and costume design is both simple yet perfect for the moment we are reliving on screen through Offerman. So I can see how a man like Jerry Kane became a popular figure as he travelled county to county and Offerman packs one of the year’s best performances thanks to this Jekyll and Hyde like quality in character portrayal.

Sovereign tells a hard story that feels timely and no matter how many years have passed since the crimes of 2010 West Memphis, it is never an easy one to tell. Its climax and finale pack a brutal and emotional punch that is hard to shake hours after you watch it, but is a vicious reminder of the roles fathers play in the lives of their sons. Simple in thematic terms but as hard as concrete in its execution. Sovereign is hands down one of 2025’s best films, track this one down and give it a watch.