Bobcat Goldthwaite (director)
Studiocanal (studio)
Cert 15 (certificate)
104 min. (length)
09 July 2012 (released)
11 July 2012
Natural Born Killers it ain’t, that’s for sure. However, if you have enough black humour in your bones to appreciate some outrageous visceral stabs laced with irony then God may bless you, too.
Out of job New York car salesman Frank (Joel Murray) has had enough of the downward spiral of his country. Not only that, he’s also had enough of his annoying neighbours and their screaming baby, making his anxiety worse and causing him headaches. In addition, his ex-wife, who has custody of their little daughter, spoils the girl to the extent of turning her into a complete spoilt brat.
Numb with anger and despair, Frank spends his days and nights watching drivel on the box, despairing ever more when exposed to mindless reality-TV and ‘talent’ search on ‘American Superstarz’. Playing with the idea of suicide, he stops putting plan into action while watching a reality show during which a spoiled teenager called Chloe launches into a f-word tirade when her parents mistakenly buy her a wrong car for her birthday. The next day he steals his neighbour’s vehicle and drives to the very school in which the ungrateful girl studies and kills her. It is here that he encounters the dead girl’s classmate Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), who congratulates him on having killed Chloe. Both Frank and Roxy come to realize that America needs to be eliminated of the most stupid members of society, and that’s a lot…
There are strong parallels to movies such as Natural Born Killers or He Was A Quiet Man but God Bless America, for all it’s best intentions, never quite reaches the sick and twisted ‘sophistication’ of the aforementioned. While it cleverly parodies mindless TV shows and the shallow celebrity culture we wallow in these days – including an appearance of the killers on a talent show – the films’ pace is hampered by being inconsistent while we get the feeling that we’ve seen it all before. And we have. Whether it’s a full throttle attack against homophobes, bigamists, racists or other annoying individuals of society, the acidic humour and razor-sharp satirical elements tend to fall a little flat after a while.
The special sleeve artwork for the DVD has been created by graphic artist Jock, best known for his work on 2000 AD, Judge Dredd and The Losers.
GOD BLESS AMERICA will receive its European Premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on Friday 29 July. Director Bobcat Goldthwait and actor Joel Murray will be attending.
