God Bless America is a film both written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait about a poor schlub who can’t seem to catch a break. His neighbors suck, he has migraines all the time, he forces himself to watch crappy late-night reality television, he laments the steady erosion of American culture that he claims is typical of a falling empire… the list goes on and on. When he loses his job and is told by his doctor he has a malignant brain tumor both on the same day, he decides he wants to end it all. In a stroke of inspiration, he stops just before he pulls the trigger and decides to go murder an entitled rich 16 year-old reality TV star because she’s a big See You Next Tuesday. He encounters another teenager along the way who is fascinated and excited by what he’s done, and together they embark on a cross-country journey to kill as many bigots, assholes, and reality TV stars as possible.
This isn’t really much a movie as it is a contemporary pop culture soap box. In between most of the action and plot sequences are these long dry monologues about how shitty America has become with its focus on shitty Internet- and pop-culture meme-phenomena. Namely that no one goes outside or talks to anyone else about anything other than what Angelina Jolie or Kim Kardashian are up to, or that really shitty singer on American Superstar that was on last night; man what a retard that guy was. Americans have become narcissistic and cruel with the proliferation of Internet trolling and reality TV, and this activity has extended beyond those platforms into pop culture at large. No longer do people leave their houses to go talk to other people; they just hunch over their cell phones, eyes transfixed on the hypnotic scroll of the Twitter feed or TMZ.
This thesis is what drives the movie, and being wrapped up in a black-comedy package does good things to justify the cold-blooded violence that permeates the action sequences. It gives us a reason to cheer because moar assholes have been thankfully removed from the gene pool. Surely, we’ve had similar passing thoughts about murdering these crazy entitled stupid people that dominate the airwaves. Amirite guys? I mean have you seen Keeping Up With the Kardashians?? Guys??? Hey, put that phone down! I TOLD YOU I WAS MOSTLY HARMLESS. WHY DON’T YOU LISTEN????
Perhaps we’ve become the villains ourselves, pointing and laughing at the carnage without even thinking that this movie may be about us and that we’re to blame. The well-written dialogues substantiate this succinctly enough, but their constant and nagging presence quickly becomes very tedious and patronizing as the movie drones on. Writers of the world, please take a note or two here: people do not talk this way. I don’t care if you have hipster friends who talk about Ecclesiastes and the human condition as it relates to Atlas Shrugged. This never happens! Ever!
Goldthwait really, really, REALLY wants to bang it into our heads that America is in decline. On top of that, we have to suspend our disbelief even more than normal as the duo triapses around the countryside killing people in broad daylight with numerous witnesses everywhere. I get that it’s supposed to be a joke that the media would blame, like, Al Qaeda or whatever because people are stupid, but everyone knows that you cannot get away with indiscriminately killing people. The general public might be oblivious to the facts, but police are usually pretty good at sorting things out. They’ve had a lot of practice. I realize that this is commentary and is meant to be a tad unrealistic, but if you put a neuron of brain power into the ramifications of murdering people for longer than 2 seconds, it might take you out of the movie a little.
C
ThomFiles
God Bless America (2012)
God Bless America is a film both written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait about a poor schlub who can’t seem to catch a break. His neighbors suck, he has migraines all the time, he forces himself to watch crappy late-night reality television, he laments the steady erosion of American culture that he claims is typical of a falling empire… the list goes on and on. When he loses his job and is told by his doctor he has a malignant brain tumor both on the same day, he decides he wants to end it all. In a stroke of inspiration, he stops just before he pulls the trigger and decides to go murder an entitled rich 16 year-old reality TV star because she’s a big See You Next Tuesday. He encounters another teenager along the way who is fascinated and excited by what he’s done, and together they embark on a cross-country journey to kill as many bigots, assholes, and reality TV stars as possible.
This isn’t really much a movie as it is a contemporary pop culture soap box. In between most of the action and plot sequences are these long dry monologues about how shitty America has become with its focus on shitty Internet- and pop-culture meme-phenomena. Namely that no one goes outside or talks to anyone else about anything other than what Angelina Jolie or Kim Kardashian are up to, or that really shitty singer on American Superstar that was on last night; man what a retard that guy was. Americans have become narcissistic and cruel with the proliferation of Internet trolling and reality TV, and this activity has extended beyond those platforms into pop culture at large. No longer do people leave their houses to go talk to other people; they just hunch over their cell phones, eyes transfixed on the hypnotic scroll of the Twitter feed or TMZ.
This thesis is what drives the movie, and being wrapped up in a black-comedy package does good things to justify the cold-blooded violence that permeates the action sequences. It gives us a reason to cheer because moar assholes have been thankfully removed from the gene pool. Surely, we’ve had similar passing thoughts about murdering these crazy entitled stupid people that dominate the airwaves. Amirite guys? I mean have you seen Keeping Up With the Kardashians?? Guys??? Hey, put that phone down! I TOLD YOU I WAS MOSTLY HARMLESS. WHY DON’T YOU LISTEN????
Perhaps we’ve become the villains ourselves, pointing and laughing at the carnage without even thinking that this movie may be about us and that we’re to blame. The well-written dialogues substantiate this succinctly enough, but their constant and nagging presence quickly becomes very tedious and patronizing as the movie drones on. Writers of the world, please take a note or two here: people do not talk this way. I don’t care if you have hipster friends who talk about Ecclesiastes and the human condition as it relates to Atlas Shrugged. This never happens! Ever!
Goldthwait really, really, REALLY wants to bang it into our heads that America is in decline. On top of that, we have to suspend our disbelief even more than normal as the duo triapses around the countryside killing people in broad daylight with numerous witnesses everywhere. I get that it’s supposed to be a joke that the media would blame, like, Al Qaeda or whatever because people are stupid, but everyone knows that you cannot get away with indiscriminately killing people. The general public might be oblivious to the facts, but police are usually pretty good at sorting things out. They’ve had a lot of practice. I realize that this is commentary and is meant to be a tad unrealistic, but if you put a neuron of brain power into the ramifications of murdering people for longer than 2 seconds, it might take you out of the movie a little.
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