Sovereign Review
Sovereign (2025) Film Review from the 24th Annual Tribeca Film Festival, a movie directed by Christian Swegal, written by Christian Swegal, and starring Jacob Tremblay, Nick Offerman, Dennis Quaid, Terry J. Nelson, Bobby Gilchrist, Thomas Mann, Buddy Campbell, Chris Greene, and Jade Fernandez.
Christian Swegal’s directorial debut, Sovereign, lands at an extremely pointed time in our country. Unfortunately, the same could probably be said if this movie were released anytime in the last ten years or so. Sovereign explores the little-known ‘sovereign citizenship’ movement in America by following a real-life father-son duo, Jerry (Nick Offerman) and Joe Kane (Jacob Tremblay), as they tour middle America, fight the banks and foreclosure notices, and spiral closer and closer toward oblivion.
The story of Sovereign is cast in the shadow of the 2008 financial crisis. When banks were foreclosing on homes faster than they could dish out loans that should never have been approved in the first place. The bubble had finally burst. This isn’t where Jerry Kane’s extremism is born from, and we only get his backstory in snippets of dialogue, but it feels like the final nail in a proverbial coffin that pushes him over an edge that he would never return from.
The ‘sovereign citizen’ movement is a group of people that doesn’t recognize any local, state, or federal governmental laws and agencies. It’s their belief that all forms of government have become so corrupted that their laws and jurisdiction no longer apply to them. So, when Jerry is pulled over on a routine traffic stop with his son, he doesn’t hand the police officer a license or registration because he doesn’t have them. Or need them. His car is merely a “conveyance” that he is using for reasons that he does not need to disclose with any form of law enforcement.
While this may sound like a toddler demanding emancipation after taking away their toy, and at times it really does, the scary part is the sincerity with which Jerry Kane spews his weightless rhetoric and the dead-eyed seriousness with which Offerman delivers it.
Jerry is at the forefront of this fringe movement. He supplements what little income he can get by touring middle American states and giving lectures to people on how to fight foreclosures and bank liens and how to conduct yourself when talking to law enforcement.
On most of his trips, Jerry takes his son Joe along with him. This works for Jerry in two ways: one is the practicality of having another helping hand around, but the second is Joe can’t help but be indoctrinated into this fringe movement by getting a front-row seat. Joe acts as the entrance point for the audience into the world of the ‘sovereign citizen’ movement, and it’s with his lens that Swegal focuses the film through.
Joe respects his father, but he has hopes for a normal life that Jerry can’t understand or accept. It isn’t that he doesn’t believe in the movement or his father’s work, but after the death of his mother, he has no one to guide him other than Jerry. Tremblay and Offerman are absolutely dynamic together, with the younger actor flexing some serious muscle throughout the film.
Swegal weaves a parallel story alongside the journey of Jerry and Joe as we follow officer John Bouchart (Dennis Quaid) as he helps his son through the police academy, Adam (Thomas Mann), and in raising his newborn child. These scenes act as a foil for the parenting that Jerry does with Joe. Both are father-son stories with wildly different ethos, and we know it’s only a matter of time until they eventually meet. This juxtaposition doesn’t entirely work, and while the logic and artistry are sound, at times the John and Adam scenes feel like they are taking away from our leads.
Sovereign is inspired by real people and a very real movement. Joe and Jerry existed and their philosophies live on in shrouded little nooks and corners across the sprawling American landscape. Christian Swegal strips the story down to the foundation, using muted colors and cluttered frames to showcase the squalor Jerry and Joe live in, but Offerman and Tremblay turn in brilliant performances that frighten, intrigue, and anger the audience. Not unlike the vision of America that Sovereign exists in.
Rating: 7.5/10
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