Review of God Bless America (2012) by Jake F — 23 Mar 2013

Movies like FALLING DOWN or to some degree OFFICE SPACE are fun because they feature folks rebelling against the mundane stupidities of life in ways we CAN'T in "real life." We wish these surrogates well as we watch them, because they are taking action against the anger we experience when McDonald's stops service breakfast 14 seconds after you get to the counter to order, even though you've been waiting in line for 3 minutes. Or when bosses demand that darn TPS report!

GOD BLESS AMERICA, in its trailers, promised to be in a similar ilk, only more violent and black. Certainly there is a lot more violence and bloodshed. I was expecting a guilty-pleasure catharsis. I was going to chastise myself for enjoying watching horrific reality show divas getting killed or maybe some folks to talk on their cell phones during movies. I mean, don't we ALL hate that. Sure, I would have felt bad for enjoying the fantasy, because enjoyment would imply some level of agreement. I was prepared to live with that!

But writer/director Bobcat Goldthwaite made a couple of key miscalculations. First and foremost, he veers too much from targets we can all agree with (rude neighbors, gossip mongering TMZ hosts, people who double park on purpose) to political targets. The main character in the movie, Frank, starts out wanting to get rid of rude people or those who aren't "nice." Yet much of his ire is focused on conservative talk show hosts and the Tea Party. The film does more than imply that most of the rudeness and decline in civilized discourse in our country is due to "the right wing", as though Chris Matthews or Keith Olbermann were the most civil folks on TV. It equates those hate-mongering crazies who demonstrate at soldiers' funerals about God hating gays with everyday Tea Party members, who assemble peacefully. WHY drag cheap & incorrect political targets into this when there are so many non-partisan jerks in the world that we can all agree on wiping out?

At the beginning of the film we spend A LOT of time getting to see Frank (an actually pretty terrific Joel Murray) sink into the despair that leads him to kill (rather than his first temptation, suicide). He gets fired for no good reason and then is diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. He figures he should clean up some of America's mess first and (without spoiling anything) ends up partnering with a precocious and VERY rude & angry teenage girl named Roxy. (I call her "very rude" because she really seems like someone Frank might actually want to target not befriend.).

Also, even if the politics don't bother you, it's likely the fact that the violence, while bloody when it occurs, is actually pretty infrequent. From the needlessly long build-up to the extended scenes of the two partners chatting (some of the scenes are good, others are repetitive)...GOD BLESS AMERICA frequently drags quite badly.

There are some amusing moments and one that made me laugh outloud, involving an effort to light the gas tank of a car. The music selections, including lots of Alice Cooper and a GREAT Kinks song, are good. And Joel Murray certainly showed that he needs a good, big role to chew into.

But the poor pacing, needless stereotyping of 50% of America and a terrible ending weight down the kernels of goodness in this film, and I cannot recommend it.