This is a different role for Nick Offerman. One where he plays a man that is against all forms of the law and foundations of the legal system and is on the run to constitute his rights without government means. Written and directed by Christen Swegal, Sovereign has meaning that weaves realism to the fullest. With a vast landscape of doing operations in an opposite matter, it continues down the road of confrontation which is written to have a form of entitlement. The film is one that has received lots of press at the Tribeca Film Festival this year, and my appreciation for Sovereign is in the narrative of beliefs. “Beliefs” that go to a point of impacting a livelihood in a concerning and visceral direction.

The film starts with a vision of criminality and truancy on many fronts. It is all in the control of a “Sovereign” citizen and father Jerry Kane (Nick Offerman). His son is Joe Kane (Jacob Tremblay). They go on the road promoting their anti-government views to encourage other ones to go in the direction of their extremist ideologies. Their norms are off and wrong. For example, when there is a scenario like a mortgage to be paid, Jerry believes that it does not exist. When Jerry gets pulled over, he believes many of his rights are being violated. As he sees it,many standards for a system of law do not apply to Jerry. His son though, sees the angles. Joe sees that his father pushes the boundaries. Especially with Joe growing up in a school system where he is home-schooled with little exposure to other ideas, he hopes to have a way out.

The film delivers that harsh dynamic of tolerance. A cinematic direction that blurs reality in a sense to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. Each choice has consequences. When the limit of the law starts to hit challenging buttons, officer John Bouchart (Dennis Quaid) comes in. He gets a sense of Joe’s situation with his father. His own son, Adam Bouchart (Thomas Mann), is training to become an officer. It is a one-of-a-kind ride of tension.

I love the dynamic of the two sets of fathers and sons. One is trying to teach his son to ignore the law, and the other one is trying to teach his son to enforce the law—the two aspects tango with political suspense. And the fueling aspect is that the harsher the scenarios get, the more of the anti-government words come into play. Offerman’s role is filled with a machine gun of words spewing ignorance and misbelief.

The landscape of wrongdoings is one that I feel carries a harsh tone when the consequences of ignoring reality finally hit. Jerry tries to get Joe to think that all systems set in place are flawedsomehow. However, Joe sees why there are rules, and the common ground is one that tumbles into rough matters in Sovereign. The matter of disbelief can only be carried out for so long before consequences must come around.

Power vs power is the bond of Sovereign. It is in the performances of Offerman and Quaid. The dynamic shifts of flowing above and below the law always hit a deficit at the surface. Sovereign builds the foundation around disaster to boil more disaster. When that happens, it is like an earthquake of heavy and irreparable matters. But which side has the higher ground?

There are two lines of dialogue that spoke to me greatly, and both come from Offerman’s performance. The first line, “That’s a system…that’s government,” and from this quote there is that core of Joe wanting to be in a different reality. This quote is saidwhen Joe wants to enroll in a school and Jerry tries to shift and blindside his son’s mode of thinking. The second line is, “We’re not engaged in commerce,” and this is when Jerry is dealing with a violation he has caused and tries to bring in his theories in order to dismiss his error. The dismissiveness and rebelliousness brings in hard lines that make it more drenching and cinematic to survive in Sovereign. A film that greases the wheel with misdirection and redefines entitlements to new heights. Three-and-a-half out of four stars.