Comedian turned director Bobcat Goldthwait made quite an impression on Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) audiences with his 2009 feature World’s Greatest Dad. This year he made the venture down under to plug his latest big screen offering God Bless America, which screened to packed audiences and altogether nervous laughter.
Frank (Joel Murray) has recently been diagnosed with cancer and told he hasn’t got long to live. Sitting at home in the dark watching inane reality television shows and trying to block out the incessant crying of the kid next door (whose parents seem to care little how it affects the neighbours), Frank decides he wants to do something about all the awful, selfish, mean people in the world who suck up air time with their drama, before his time runs out.
His first target is a brat named Chloe who has her own reality show and lives nearby. She is the kind of kid we see these days whose parents give her everything yet she still fails to give a shit. After seeing her on her show getting a brand new car for her birthday and screaming at her parents because it’s the wrong one, Frank steals his shitty neighbours car and drives to Chloe’s school where he asks her why she’s so mean. She responds in a predictably stuck up, bratty way and Frank appropriately reacts.
Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), a cute and aggressively aware bystander/classmate, decides to join Frank on his mission to take out the trash. Bored with her mundane life and excited by this unpredictable, brash act, the two thus begin the best vigilante satire to come out in many years.
If you ever wanted someone to come out in an audition on Britain’s Got Talent or American Idol and shoot Simon Cowell in the head then this film is for you. With references to French New Wave and classic Film Noir, God Bless America is incredibly funny and the perfect night out for B-Grade lovers and people sick of the shit on TV and the assholes who clog up our cinemas talking and texting and ruining everything.
God Bless America is out in Australian cinemas from Thursday 15 November through Potential Films.
