God Bless America
Director: Bobcat Goldthwait
Writer: Bobcat Goldthwait
Cast: Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr, Melinda Page Hamilton, Rich McDonald, Larry Miller, Bryce Johnson
Part of: /slash Filmfestival

Plot:
Frank (Joel Murray) is pretty much fed up with the world. He’s divorced, his daughter doesn’t even want to visit him and he doesn’t get the cruelty of the world around him. And then the rug is completely pulled out from under him when he gets fired and diagnosed with a fatal, inoperable brain tumor and he just snaps. As he goes on a killing spree through the US, killing all the jerks, he is joined by Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), an equally disgruntled teenager who is inspired by his first murder.

God Bless America was fun, in a very bitter and macabre way. If you like your humor dark, this is the movie for you.

The movie is excellently made. Both Joel Murray and Tara Lynne Barr are wonderful in their roles. And the pacing is pretty much perfect, making the movie feel very short.

There’s a lot of ranting in this film and most of it is pretty much spot-on, making identification with Frank’s frustration pretty easy. What the movie didn’t quite achieve, though, was the necessary distance from Frank and Roxy. Frank and Roxy, as much as I might agree with their politics, are killers and their behavior is certainly not something to be applauded. But it felt like the movie expected us to after all, especially since it introduced the martyrdom idea itself.

But maybe I’m taking the whole thing a little too seriously. It certainly is a comedy and it is fun. From small remarks (like “What’s wrong with Glee?” “It stereotypes and homogenizes homosexuals. Plus, it ruined Rocky Horror forever.”) that made me want to high five somebody (mentally) to the bigger remarks that had me nodding along, I did enjoy myself.

Plus, the soundtrack was really damn cool.

Summarising: very much worth seeing.