REVIEW: BOBCAT GOLDTHWAIT’S CULTURAL REVENGE FANTASY, GOD BLESS AMERICA

Sounds like the movie ended up succumbing to the very flaws many figured it would fall into.

Still want to see this for... out of pure bloodlust.

I kinda thought the point of it was that both Frank and Roxy's rationale was completely inconsistent. The film lets Frank go on these unprompted lectures, and then keeps undercutting him and Roxy, to the point where you're not sure how to feel about him or his quest. I appreciate the review and the points you made, but I think you're saying that Bobcat's viewpoint is inconsistent, and I would say its the characters' shaky moral equivalence. Had a great time with this.

Well, that's unfortunate, giving that the movie seems to be written for and by me; not that I'm a psychopath or anything but boy do I loathe just about every one of the movie's targets that I saw in the trailers.

I'm still gonna watch it the first chance I get. I've been extremely pleased with everything Bobcat has made so far.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabe T 

I kinda thought the point of it was that both Frank and Roxy's rationale was completely inconsistent. The film lets Frank go on these unprompted lectures, and then keeps undercutting him and Roxy, to the point where you're not sure how to feel about him or his quest. I appreciate the review and the points you made, but I think you're saying that Bobcat's viewpoint is inconsistent, and I would say its the characters' shaky moral equivalence. Had a great time with this.

Not at all, he sticks to the "mean" rationale throughout the entire movie and it's mostly reflected in the people he kills. When it doesn't, it's a function of plot and circumstance (the girl's parents, that one security guard) not an exploration of his shaky ethos or something. The inconsistency comes from what targets he's particularly got a stick up his ass about. His rants and problems are written like they come from a consistent place, but you can tell once the journey starts it's about episodic little murder spree scenes rather than a plot really driving towards a thematic goal. It becomes really clear at the end, where his blaze of glory is so sloppy and Roxy just shows up for no reason.

All of that's fine, but there's an undercurrent the entire movie of Frank drawing lines or making distinctions as if to give him high ground, at least with the middle-aged, leftie, male intellectual, pop-culture-hating crowd that would be sympathetic.

That's why I find it kind of funny because the movie totally reads to me as a movie about dudes I know from the boards like Jake or Jeremy B. going on a spree, going after all the dumb shit we bitch about here and on facebook, but with that outspoken, familial respect for women that you see in well-adjusted post-boomer men*. Unfortunately Bobcat just didn't get the structure right to pull off a fully self-righteous revenge flick, nor did he embrace the madness for something less apologetic.

Any of that make any sense?

I think the movie makes a clear stance on his "consistency" being problematic, however. Particularly in that last scene, which I would discuss if more people have seen the film. Just because there's no outright condemnation of his ideas doesn't mean Frank is the film's de-facto mouthpiece. It's not the killing that soothes his soul (which is, notably, diseased - anyone would be if they fantasized about shooting babies), but rather the journey, and the time spent with someone with similar interests.

But you can see the moral inflexibility he has with such a concept as refusing to tell Roxy she's pretty. She may be spoiled and more than a little obnoxious, but she clearly needs that validation. And he's robbing her of it because of his strict moral guideline to not objectify her. Both have salient points, and the film doesn't take a side with either one. That whole thing ends in an ellipsis (at least, for most of the film), forcing you to call into question Frank's justification on most every matter.

For the record, I have no idea what a "fully self-righteous revenge flick" would be like, and I'm not sure I want to.

Frank is absolutely the mouthpiece of the film. You can tell because most of the film is his mouth moving, often for entire extended sequences in between the same character narrating similar thoughts. It's Frank's story because he's telling it to us, and the film has no real distance from him, even during the climax when (if I'm remembering correctly) Frank stops addressing us directly. You can also tell because the only other character with any screentime goes off on the exact same style of rants, with the tiniest tweaks to differentiate character. Her Juno rant is not only shameless, but seemingly oblivious to the irony of how it's being delivered and by whom. And while Roxy is cute and fun, she and the dynamic she builds with Frank aren't developed enough to take them beyond being mere components of Frank's story. She moves in an out of the story as is necessary for Frank to feel things, to the point where her convenient appearance defies all logic, even in this movie.

Don't get me wrong, I really did have fun with the film. A lot of fun. I most definitely do not see a tightly-composed, sophisticated cultural parody built into a carefully engineered character chemistry piece though.  It's sloppy and personal, which is largely its charm, but I feel like Bobcat can do better.

Interesting review, and a shame it doesn't appear to be a slam-dunk. Still, am raring to see this one.

Should've seen this with an audience.  It played completely flat to me.  It really just did feel like someone purging a bunch of petulant rants on the screen.  Rants I agree with, sure.  But it just made me roll my eyes.

The audience I saw this with absolutely ate it up.  I enjoyed it as well, but maybe not as much as I would have had it not been an 11:30 screening after a long day.

I think there's a bit more going on here than some of you do, particularly with how the person on who's behalf Frank had his grudge with the faux American Idol show turns out to be just as bad as the ones Frank thought were victimizing him.  It's pretty telling that it's in the wake of that revelation that he finally tells Roxy she's pretty.  He knows they're not making it out of there, so he gives her the validation she's been looking for as his final act, one small gesture of kindness in this world of shit he's about to leave.

I loved the hell out of it.   I really like Goldwaith's last two movies quite a bit.  

Heads up for Direct TV people who want to see this for free: Their "HD extra pack" is free until May 9, and it includes HDNet movies, which is showing God Bless America on May 9.

It's funny and energetic and highly enjoyable and has absolutely no idea what it's on about.

After decrying comedy that uses empty vulgarity as the punchline and ripping Diablo Cody over her stylized dialogue, a teenage girl says a man looks like "fuck pie." Literally RIGHT AFTER the main character describes shock jocks as "afraid of people with vaginas" he gets fired for extremely weak "sexual harassment" and that's as false and reactionary and anti-feminist as any degrading radio show. This is a really mean movie about how bad it is that people are so mean in this country. What was so great about Sleeping Dogs Lie and World's Greatest Dad was that the black comedic hearts at their core were still powerfully empathetic.

This isn't satire. At the Q&A after my screening, Goldthwait straight up said that he just reshot the things he was going after in slightly different form. Is it cathartic to see stand-ins for these assholes get blown away? Sure. Is it interesting beyond that surface level? No. At some points there's nothing but characters rattling off lists and the joke is apparently "ha! I that's a thing!" It's also really poorly structured. Film Crit Hulk already pointed this out, but the movie's climax is basically fifteen minutes in, with Frank's speech in his office. Absolutely no idea in the film evolves or gets reexamined from then on out. It just sort of meanders aimlessly until it winds up at a completely unearned emotional beat between Frank and Roxy (who makes no sense as a character at all).

I can't really suss out a coherent message or theme from this movie. If you take it straight, then it essentially says that "man all these people suck." Mind-blowing revelation, there. I also have a feeling that the people who laugh hardest at this movie will be the ones who enjoy its reality show targets. But really, Bobcat is just reveling in false nostalgia through this whole movie. It's not much of a cut above a post you might see on an image site about how women used to be hotter, where they take a period photo shoot portrait of a starlet and contrast it with a candidly-taken street picture of a modern girl in an unflattering position. This is useless. This movie is useless. Such a disappointment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disciple_72 

Heads up for Direct TV people who want to see this for free: Their "HD extra pack" is free until May 9, and it includes HDNet movies, which is showing God Bless America on May 9.

Got it recorded, haven't watched it yet.

Deff reminds me of Michael Douglas' Falling Down.

The big ending scene I felt had a similar emotional impact as the end of Phantom Of The Paradise and Series 7:The Contenders, all being terror and tragedy live in front of a huge audience.

I enjoyed it. If I could change anything I would've picked up the pace some. 

The sudden-severe grievous bodily harm  was well done and effective.

I finally saw this on Wednesday night (at an arthouse movie theatre and it was nice to hear laughter throughout; also, I did not feel so bad laughing at the shocking gag that was done about 5 minutes in, as others did too) and while there was a thing or two I would change (do we need a rant against George W. Bush in 2012?) I overall loved it. I did not mind how there were long monologues or how some could call it heavy-handed; maybe it's because it's as if Bobcat read my mind and wrote down most of the things that I loathe, but I really dug all those targets getting skewed and what made it was the two leads, the great acting job they did, and their relationship to each other. Despite being pitch-black it was also charming in its own unique way. By the end of the year this will likely still be one of the best movies I see all year long, along with one of my favorites.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to.  I didn't find it self-righteous.  They were both f-ups.  I thought it had its charms.