‘Sovereign’ (2025) Review — Nick Offerman Gives A Knockout Performance

The new film Sovereign is based on the true story of Jerry Kane (Parks & Recreation’s Nick Offerman), who, along with his sixteen-year-old son Joe (Room’s Jacob Tremblay), identifies as a Sovereign Citizen, a movement of anti-government extremists. Jerry is teaching his son that they are independent of federal, state, and local laws. Taxes? Not on Jerry’s watch. A driver’s license? Why on earth would you need government documentation to travel, especially when it’s not for commercial purposes?

And don’t get Jerry started on the courts—he teaches a course on how to create fake liens and court filings to obstruct government authority. It’s a strategy he shares with Lesley Anne (Martha Plimpton), one of his new students who’s on the verge of losing her home. No worries, though—Jerry still lets her pay for their hotel room during a field trip to Vegas. Jerry has an inflated sense of his place in the world. In his way is Chief John Bouchart (Dennis Quaid). He investigates an incident where Jerry is arrested for asserting his sovereign rights.

Offerman plays him with a fascinating mix of covert narcissism and paranoia, layered with insecurity and hypersensitivity that makes him utterly transfixing. Jerry and Joe travel from state to state, preaching the Sovereign word while dressed like they stepped out of the movie Twins. They earn just under $1,000 per session. Each time, you can see Offerman slowly unravel, ranting about his biblical right to kill any government official who gets in his way. He combines menace with lowbrow charisma to exploit and manipulate struggling, hardworking people. It’s compelling, though it would have been even more fascinating if the film had explored that aspect further.

Sovereign was written and directed by Christian Swegal, marking his directorial debut, which is quite an improvement over his first feature, Proud Mary. Sovereign is intense, gritty, and unvarnished, offering no easy answers, and culminating in a jaw-dropping finale that is hard to shake. Though the movie plays as a thriller, Swegal’s script actively explores character through the lens of Cognitive Dissonance Theory, showing how characters reinforce their beliefs when challenged by authority rather than reconsider them.

Sovereign is worth watching because the combination can be riveting. At the same time, the story remains terrifyingly relevant, as it applies to similar methods in elections to place candidates in higher office. It’s about manipulating paranoia, challenging government authority, claiming it stands in the way of the American dream, and following the so-called enlightened man who promises to lead you to absolute freedom, not the faux kind.

The film takes dramatic liberties, but on a macro level, is a chilling reminder of the individuals who fall through the cracks—and the groups society leaves behind. Sovereign weaves a compelling tale of systematic distrust, economic desperation, and alienation that can give birth to radical ideologies. While Offerman’s Kane operated on the fringes, a movie like The Order demonstrates how radical ideology found a foothold that has left a lasting mark on modern history. On a micro level, Sovereign is a heartbreaking story of innocence lost.

You can watch Sovereign in theaters and on video-on-demand starting July 18!