Mixed Blessing

Bobcat Goldthwait appeared a few months back on an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher to plug the independent film he recently wrote and directed, God Bless America. The premise seemed interesting enough for me to put the movie into my Netflix queue: when a dispirited middle-aged man is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he decides to embark on a killing spree. Teaming up with a sassy young teenage girl, he begins taking out the people he blames for the moral corrosion of society -- starting with reality TV show personalities.

The film is a dark comedy, rendered darker than Goldthwait ever intended by recent real life events. (I'll get to that in a moment.) It also packs a clear agenda of social commentary against reality television, decaying social graces, and more. It's not a lofty message, but it is an accurate one.

I was watching the movie, enjoying the humor but waffling back on forth on what I thought of the message. It seemed quite shrewd at first, and then too ham-fisted and on the nose after that. But then along came a plot point that is certain to disturb a number of viewers who decide to take in this movie:

Around halfway through the film, the two protagonists decide to go to a theater to watch a documentary war film. They're surrounded by rude patrons who talk to each other, answer their cell phones, and throw candy. So they pull out their guns and mow down all the rude people in the theater before calmly walking out. Let's face it, even the people who aren't offended immediately by this scene are certainly going to at least think of the Aurora theater shooting.

But this scene, conceived of and filmed over a year before the Aurora shooting, is ultimately what made me decide that no, the movie was not too obvious to make a good point. Actually, it was incredibly prescient. Not because it "predicted" the shooting itself, but because it predicted some of the response to the shooting. Later on in the film, the two main characters are watching a news broadcast of their handiwork, and the reporter speculates that they were driven to carry out their massacre by the violent content of the film they were watching. The same ridiculous claim was leveled by some against The Dark Knight Rises, with some theaters subsequently taking the pointless measure of banning masks and costumes after the shooting.

In this aspect, art was a sad predictor of life.

Joel Murray (brother of Bill, and recurring character Freddy Rumsen on Mad Men) stars as a very dry character with a warm gooey center somewhat in the model of the lead in Pixar's Up. Tara Lynne Barr is his plucky young sidekick. The two have a fun rapport together and make an enjoyable if unconventional screen couple.

For some people, there's no way the movie can be funny now in light of this content. The truth is, I don't think the film is riotously funny in any case. It wasn't quite all-out comedic enough to start with to be a top notch comedy. But I think it does generate some laughs, and has an apt message. I'd call it a B-. As to whether or not it gets the recommendation, though? I think you'll have to decide for yourself. If you've felt reluctant to go out to the movie theater since Aurora, you'll almost certainly find this happenstance element of the film to be in poor taste. If you can set that at least partially aside and try to enjoy the film as originally conceived, you may enjoy it.