Bobcat Goldthwait is probably best known for his highly individual delivery of jokes as a stand up comedian (as well as his appearances as Zed in Police Academy 2,3 & 4) . Squawking random outbursts and seemingly involuntary nonsense he’s only an orange spray tan away from presidency but the past twenty years has seen him move behind the camera as writer-director with several often darkly satirical films of which God Bless America is undoubtedly one. It’s a quite astonishing and incendiary first half hour or so especially the start of the film which sees Frank (a likeable Joel Murray who is easy to identify with) sat on a sofa channel surfing in front of his TV flicking through snippets of shows that take excoriating swipes at everything from TMZ news to reality show notably My Super Sweet 16 and American Idol. If ever a comic wanted to vent their spleen against the vacuousness of modern celebrity then this is it. And this scene is all set against the background noise of his neighbours and their wailing baby that results in a truly jaw dropping scene as he knocks on their door and unleashes Hell.
But Frank’s life is about to get worse. In the name of political correctness he’s fired from his job for showing compassion to a colleague and then his doctor gives him a terminal diagnosis. Frank is a decent man with values so his rationale seems to be that if he’s not got long left then he might as well take out the self-absorbed talent vacuum’s that populate the world and he starts with the appalling teenager on the reality show, ‘My 16th birthday’. But where the film takes a turn is that his shooting of the TV brat is all seen by Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr) who rather than being appalled actually applauds Frank’s actions and hooks up with him persuading him that there are far more targets also worth offing. So their killing spree begins.
It’s easy to see God Bless America as a Natural Born Killers meets Network and there are nods to Tarantino dialogue with a line directly lifted from the excellent ‘Jackie Brown’. It is of course a dark satire with the pair driving around in a bright yellow sports car, caught full face on CCTV and yet never tracked down with the film culminating in a live TV transmission of the films version of American Idol where an morbidly obese tuneless singer who couldn’t carry a song in a bucket or hit a note with a mallet has become something of a laughing stock who the programme makers have paraded on national TV to be jeered at.
At the heart of the film is the question why have civilization if we’re no longer prepared to be civilized? For audiences there will be moments of wish fulfilment throughout the film about the dreck that seems to have subsumed the culture, social media especially – you only have to look at the rise of the influencer many of which mistakenly believe that their self-perceived vocation in life is not a sustainable long term career.
God Bless America is something of an often not unfair diatribe against modern media and is sharp and incisive with an end speech that rails against it all – the monetization of hate mongers, the rewarding of the very worst in celebrity culture and the sheer meaningless of their lives is one that’s easy to recognise but once the film starts aiming its sights at lowly and petty dislikes the film soon becomes amoral.
related feature: We ask Kevin Smith, ‘Will there be a sequel to Dogma ? ‘….plus sequels to his other films also
related feature : Ryan Reynolds defends comic acting…..
We chatted with Bobcat Goldthwait about the film…..
Here’s the God Bless America trailer…….
God Bless America is available to watch on STUDIOCANAL Presents – Available on Prime Video and Apple TV.
The post God Bless America – STREAMING appeared first on Any Good Films.
from Any Good Films https://ift.tt/enMb3lV
