Disgusted with American society and diagnosed with a brain tumor, Frank teams up with teenager Roxy and the two begin killing reality TV stars, bigots and others they find repugnant in God Bless America, directed by the equally repugnant yet completely adorable Robert Francis Goldthwait.
Goldthwait’s 1991 masterpiece, Shakes the Clown, was absolutely crucified in it’s time, but has retained a certain hysterical, offbeat, cynical quality to it that remains fresh to this day.
God Bless America is not great, we really don’t even feel right about saying that it’s good. The problem being is that it never really rises above satire, the tone is one note. With our earlier review of Super, the changing tone is really what led that movie to seep into your brain and do some fantastic poisoning. This movie could have, and should have risen to a level of Fight Club or Battle Royale. It’s made clear early on that it doesn’t care to.
How cool would it have been if Parks and Rec’s Nick Offerman would have played the lead in a pseudo serious David Fincheresque version of this?
You can see God Bless America right now on Netflix, as it’s probably not worth a trip to the theater. It’s amusing enough, and with the season finale of Portlandia coming up, yuk yuks are in short supply.
Hi, I just stopped by to visit your site and thought I’d say thanks for having me.
We are kindred spirits. Let’s stick a bunch of trash up our nose and party!