Runtime:
105 minutes
Directed
by: Bobcat Goldthwait
Starring:
Joel Muray, Tara Lynne Barr, Aris Alvarado, Dan Spencer
From:
Darko Entertainment
You
know, this movie more than anything else I can think of, was
seemingly written by... me!
On
my Blogspot page where I do a weekly update on my life, I often gripe
about how American culture/pop culture has really gone down the drain
as of late. There's the rise of “reality” TV with repugnant
behavior being scripted, garbage on the cable “news” networks (no
matter right or left wing), and just a general attitude of being rude
and ignorant, not caring how their actions affect others. Well,
Bobcat apparently feels the same way as much of what I gripe about
appeared in this pitch black comedy/satire/revenge fantasy, which was
out on demand last month and has a limited release starting this past
Friday.
In
short, Joel Murray (yes, Bill's brother) plays Frank Murdoch, a sad
lonely middle-aged guy who is divorced, as a horribly bratty 7 year
old daughter who lives with her mom, just got fired from his job for
BS reasons... oh, and was just diagnosed with a brain tumor. He takes
out a gun and is about to kill himself... but then he realizes that
there's a bunch of crap on TV (yet another thing I totally agree
with) and witnesses such things as a loathsome teenaged girl on a
ripoff of My Super Sweet 16, the noxiousness of TMZ (known in this
universe as TMI), a take on Bad Girls Club, and an over the top Glenn
Beck-a-like, meaning... Glenn Beck. He decides he's better off using
that gun on the worst members of American society. Pretty soon in the
journey he hooks up (but in a friendship sort of thing, though, a
fact the movie makes rather clear) with a cute 16 year old girl,
Roxie , who just happens to be rather psychopathic (Barr) and
together they rant and rave and do a great job of killing.
Throughout,
you get several long monologues, but they're always interesting so I
never grew tired of them. You'll see that MANY targets get skewered,
from what I mentioned already to rude people in movie theatres, bad
parking jobs, crying infants, guys who use “bro” often, Diablo
Cody, and so on and so forth. The two leads are quite different in
how they act and who they should kill off, but they do agree that
certain people should be offed. The focus ends up being on an
American Idol-esque show and how they made fun of a young boy
(Alvarado) who appears to be mentally handicapped.
While
I don't agree with everything in the movie (the rant against George
W. Bush wasn't needed, as c'mon now it's 2012) I agree with most of
it and this is like Bobcat read my mind and then put my thoughts down
on script. What a vicious and blunt (some may say heavy-handed but I
don't believe that) movie that is also often quite funny and even
charming. What makes the movie are the two lead performances. Murray
is great as a quiet guy who snaps and goes on a rampage while Barr is
also great as a wild teenager who is more than a little crazy and
eggs on Frank to do what they end up doing. If it wasn't for their
performances then I would not have enjoyed this as much as I did.
I'll
give a warning about this R-rated movie: if what I am about to say
turns you off then you might not want to watch this, even though that
bit is the most extreme one of the movie for sure... there is a dream
sequence right at the start where Frank is upset that right next door
to him is an infant that seemingly always bawls and wails. He breaks
in, kills the d-bag husband, then the baby gets thrown in the air and
SHOT WITH THE SHOTGUN, and you see blood all over and even I went
YIKES. Like I said, the rest of the movie isn't as extreme as that.
I'll
be surprised if by the end of this year the top two movies I saw this
year weren't The Raid: Redemption and then God Bless America (this movie was first released at a festival last fall but it wasn't more widespread until earlier this year). Yep,
that is how much I enjoyed this motion picture, and not just because
I believe so much of what was said. It's the type of film that I wish
more would see, especially those individuals who need to listen to
the message so that one of these days this country would rise back up
from the cultural depths we have sunk to.
I'll
be back Saturday afternoon.
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