God Bless America

What a great movie. It's rather as if Goldthwait has made an answer to Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers by way of Mike Judge's Office Space. Through the eyes of Joel Murray's Frank, we see a variety of society's ills and thankfully, Goldthwait doesn't dwell on them. To do so would be like gawking at the stupidity when you walk into a Walmart; it's just going to make you dwell longer at the stupidity on display, and you are still in a Walmart.

Instead, we get one of those movies that you either are along with or you aren't, you get or you don't. If you get it, you wish that Frank had a few more monologues, if you don't, you'd think it was advocating random shooting sprees.

Thankfully the script and Murray's brilliant portrayal of Frank has him as a principled, moral character who has his suicide interrupted by one terrible reality TV show too many. Along the way he teams up with a psychotic schoolgirl. He's rebelling violently about what society has become, she's rebelling against what society is.

It isn't a huge film, without a large budget, but well made. I felt that it worked best compared to Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, which showed spree killers as celebrities. In God Bless America the characters lament that they haven't even made the news. But in the end, Stone's film glories this shallow quest for fame while Goldthwait's film answers it, showing what happens to America when everyone is unkindly reaching for it.

'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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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.

Written and directed by American comedian Bobcat Goldthwait comes this tale of Frank (Joel Murray), a downtrodden sad sack of a man whose miserable and lonely existence away from an estranged wife and daughter is accompanied by insomnia, noisy neighbours, reality television in all it's most evil manifestations and an ever increasing lack of patience. After losing his job and discovering he has an inoperable brain tumour, Frank decides he's had enough of the ignorance and general lack of moral principles he sees permeating through everyday American life and sets about directly addressing the problem…with a gun. Aside from the overly graphic and wanton violence, this is a film with a lot to say. It's almost as if writer Goldthwait is himself getting stuff off his chest that's been festering for years. Much of the dialogue is indeed bitingly funny, including some incisive rants about the pernicious nature of American Idol type singing competitions. The film does sometimes forget itself (one holiday montage sequence seems a loose fit) and some of the murders which Frank and his willing side-kick Roxy (Tara Lynn Page) carry out might threaten to cancel out the more intelligent aspects of the message for some. What is certain is that God Bless America will divide opinion. Frank's a walking contradiction, a liberal man who fights his cause with right-wing methods to find a stage to air his liberal views. This is a film for everyone who's imagined but would never carry out. For those who want to instantly silence that barking dog down the street that's preventing valuable sleep before that big presentation at work the next day. It's for those of us who sit silently in cinema seats respecting other people's right to enjoy the experience only to have ignoramus's gibbering on mobile phones or kicking the back of your seat. While the film might draw criticism for it's depictions and excessive"preachiness", i found it agreeably acerbic. I wonder if Simon Cowell feels the same way.

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