Review of God Bless America (2012) by Garrett R — 23 Aug 2012

GOD BLESS AMERICA has plenty of irony and dark humor spoken and splattered all over it. That can mean either a smooth ride or an uneasy sit-through for a moviegoer akin, or not, to the subversive satire/dark humor sub-genre GOD BLESS AMERICA falls under.

Bobcat Goldthwait's independent, stand-alone follow-up to his very dark and relevant 2009 Robin Williams comedy WORLD'S GREATEST DAD has the same initial tone and politically incorrect, subversive social commentary delivered with the same relish that GOD BLESS AMERICA wallows in from the get-go.

GOD BLESS AMERICA plays more along the lines of Oliver Stone's NATURAL BORN KILLERS, along with James Gunn's 2010 vigilante film SUPER. In 1994's NATURAL BORN KILLERS, Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis's trigger-happy lovebirds go on a shooting spree across mid-Western America with a tabloid journalist (Robert Downey Jr.) following their every move. In SUPER, Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page are an awkward, make-shift crime fighting duo who deal realistically with the consequences of taking on a vicious drug dealer and becoming vigilantes in the first place. Both films take the viewer to dark, lurid places in a visceral and emotional sense. Yet both films have little to no redeeming quality in terms of cinematic purpose other than to serve as a character study of two seriously mentally-warped couples. This truth may turn on interest in viewers who are curious to see them, or to others who decide to steer clear of these films altogether.

Due credit has to be given to Joel Murray as the depressed, cynical, violent Frank with a judge-jury-executioner mentality. His performance is as unsettling as it is deadly serious and sometimes pitch-black funny. His young companion in their shooting spree, Tara Barr's Roxy, is just as crazed if not more so than Frank in her excitement to kill individuals who 'deserve to die' for their transgressions and overall manner. Like Robert De Niro's TAXI DRIVER character Travis Bickle in one of Martin Scorsese's many crime masterpieces, Frank views the world from a cynical, isolationist point of view towards the aspects of the world and his life that don't sit well with and within him. His viewpoint on America's culture is not totally off-kilter in that our pop culture, over-abundance of reality television on MTV, TLC, Bravo, etc. and the false idols of celebrities is,in reality, on-target (so to speak). Yet he still kills due to a justified sense of murderous justice, and even from a satire/dark humor context in which the film fits in the violence and very direct social commentary is outright disturbing in a general sense of being. In other words, GOD BLESS AMERICA oversteps its boundaries from being a darkly humorous and violent satire on America's pop culture to an exploitative film that serves no other purpose than to spew toxic, twisted logic with a few inconvenient truths sprinkled within the dialogue.

GOD BLESS AMERICA can either play on a primal level to those who feel America's media and focus on pop culture is draining the country's soul and livelihood, or as self-involved, overly violent vengeful wish-fulfillment film fantasy/cautionary tale. And to the audience who feel Goldthwait's film on a primal level, they will most likely take more from it than those who dismiss it readily after seeing it. GOD BLESS AMERICA will and will continue to divide viewers over its use of vicious social commentary, bruising violence and cynical/murderous main characters.

To this reviewer, personally, I see the film in the aforementioned latter category. It doesn't sit well with or within me, professionally or personally in any way. God bless America indeed, just not in the same context or message that GOD BLESS AMERICA all but shoves in front of the viewer. No one likes overt preaching, especially from a film that focuses so heavily on the over-saturation of pop culture in America as of now. Preaching such as this, as many of you can attest to, becomes tiresome and can wear you down. That is exactly what GOD BLESS AMERICA does to this reviewer, and so it is NOT a GOOD movie by any means whatsoever.