Review of Bad Words (2013) by Vuk O — 02 Jul 2014

Jason Bateman debuts as a director and stars in Bad Words, a bitter, dark comedy about a cynical bastard who, thanks to his brilliant mind and professional proofreading skills, find a loop hole in the rules of The Golden Quill national spelling bee and decided to make a statement by entering the contest with only one goal: winning, by beating a bunch of smart kids, and making them and their parents feel like shit.

That's what it looks like on the surface, anyway, but the story itself does have a couple of more layers, even thought it follows the standard pattern of mean-spirited indie comedies on the verge of life dramas.

Guy Trilby is a bastard, but he's actually just a damaged human being, and Bad Words seems to gravitate between being an Adam Sandler-type comedy and indie favorite Hesher. Bateman obviously wanted to portray a character that he isn't used to, and what he's used to is always playing the nice guy.

Not in this one, he's definitely not a nice guy. A cool movie, not groundbreaking, but certainly worth watching.