God Bless America

Bobcat Goldthwait's latest feature as writer & director is a hilarious & articulately written black comedy commentary on contemporary American culture, or lack thereof. Yes, mass media's influence on the devolution of society has been tackled before (Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers & Euros Lyn's Fifteen Million Merits, for example) and the script has it's issues (which are plausibility/suspension of disbelief related IMO) but the dialogue does have monologues & diatribes that I think really do shine. The acting is FTW, and the whole small budget meets meaningful repartee feel of the piece threw me back to Mark Osbourne's 2000 film "Dropping Out". Most definitely catch it if you can! 8D

I saw this movie's premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. I loved it. Bobcat Goldthwait has given us a hilarious comedy that perfectly satirizes our self-centred, celebrity-obsessed, uncritical age. Throughout the dark comedy Joel Murray delivers a perfect performance as one of the last thinking men, who has grown weary of life and society. In between the action and the comedy, Joel Murray's character delivers scathing indictments of society that had the Toronto audience break out into spontaneous applause. Besides being hilarious, this movie is really an interesting exploration of the insensitivity and thoughtlessness of modern popular culture. This movie is the antidote our "reality show," celebrity-obsessed, know-nothing-and-proud-of-it culture. The film's outlandish violence perfectly captures Horace Walpole's epigram, "This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel." Unfortunately, as the movie points out, few people are now capable of either thinking or feeling.

I loved this movie. This is "The One" Feel-Good movie I've been missing since long time.

Each day and night after work or watching world and local TV news if you start feeling frustration because of stupidity of people, politicians, dictators, and pointless empty TV shows like the ones in this movie, you need something to calm yourself down.

This is a movie that takes all those rage and poison out of your mind and make you sleep well at night.

It is as satisfying as playing Doom in God Mode, just to shoot those Evils with that Shotgun or your shiny BFG9000, after those long, long meetings with stupid PowerPoint slide readers!

It is as satisfying as a long run in Castle Wolfenstein, bringing down those Nazis shouting Achtung, one by one, after a long night working after hours ... again!

It is as satisfying as scratching and slowly removing that crust off your healing wound. It hurts, tingles and your mind says stop, but you continue playing with it because feels so good!

This movie is like Daily Show on steroids! Take this movie as a medication to your frustrations and calm down.

'GOD BLESS America': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

A dark and very violent political satire (as well as social commentary) written and directed by actor/comedian turned filmmaker Bobcat Goldthwait. The story revolves around an insurance salesman who's recently been fired from his job and discovered he's terminally ill who decides to go on a killing spree to rid the world of it's most morally deprived citizens, before he exits it as well. He teams up with a 16-year-old girl who shares his anger. The movie is a little hard to watch given the subject matter and has a somewhat nihilistic feel to it but the political commentary is spot on and the filmmaking is equally topnotch.

Joel Murray stars as Frank, an insurance salesman who's fired from his job for sending flowers to a co-worker (as well as using company records to look up her address), which she deemed as sexual harassment. He later finds out the migraines he's been suffering are the effect of a terminal brain tumor, which his doctor says is inoperable. He has a daughter who despises him and is spoiled rotten by his ex-wife (Melinda Page Hamilton). All this combined with his increasingly negative views on America and the rude hateful citizens which inhabit it cause him to go on a killing spree. He finds unlikely assistance in the form of a 16-year-old girl named Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), who's equally upset with society.

The film is sort of like the movie 'SUPER' (from last year) except darker, or you could say it's like 'NATURAL BORN KILLERS' except lighter, or 'BONNIE AND CLYDE' (which it references several times). It mocks 'AMERICAN IDOL', reality TV, conservative talk shows and other pop culture filth. It's commentary is intelligent and right on (although perhaps a bit too harsh at times). The fact that the lead characters are so insightful and well intentioned is the movie's biggest flaw though. How can such likable and otherwise seemingly well balanced people resort to such idiotic and pointless violence. It's like a horror movie where the heroes are the serial killers, which is extremely hard to take as a viewer. It leaves you torn about exactly what the film is trying to say. Which I think is it's biggest strength. A movie that makes you think that much and makes you that uncomfortable deserves credit. Goldthwait makes a very impressive writer and decent director as well! This movie is definitely not for everyone and extremely hard to watch for most but it does have some great social and political commentary and does what a movie meant to disturb should.

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Instead, I liked it and would gladly watch it again. God Bless America had so much potential. Its first half an hour or so goes as you expect, over the top dark humor with non-stop truth hitting relentless social commentary and then...Roxy walks into the movie. From this point on, unfortunately, without saying much, the movie falls into several paradoxes and loses its focus.

At its core, GBA is a good social satire with nonstop commentary on the problems with pop culture and society, but on the same coin, the movie tries so hard that it feels like a rant by an angry liberal rather the good satire it initially set out to be. Furthermore, Roxy becomes one of the characters you want dead as the movie goes and her character, along with her and Frank's relationship, appears so idealized and forced, that it just affects the movie for the rest of its running time.

The good, however, lies in the great shooting scenes, some of the great commentary made by Frank (most of what Roxy says makes you roll your eyes if not question what in the world the movie was going for), the dark humor, the targets for satire, the over the top story, its entertainment, and overall its a solid 9/10 movie but...

The bad lies in the second act, on Roxy's faulty and forced character, its endless rants between our two main character that makes you want them to kill themselves as the next person on their killing spree, the people targeted (whats wrong with high fives and country music? When did this movie become about taste rather than appropriate satire part?) and so on...it just bit itself in the tail.

I really wanted to love this movie. I almost did. Instead every time I went to smile and applaud the commentary, something matter of taste or the character discontinuity got in the way...good movie, definitely one everyone should watch, but sadly, for what it could have been and set out to be, very flawed.