SXSW 2012 Review: God Bless America
Much has been said about the strange career trajectory of Bobcat Goldthwait, the funny-voiced comedian who seem destined to be a relic of the 80’s, so I won’t waste too much time telling his story again. I love the story though. I love the idea that a respectable career grew from the least likely of places. At least, I’d like to be able to love the idea. As it stands, I have no idea how Goldthwait has garnered all the praise that he has. Is he being given a pass because people want to love the story as well?
I find Goldthwait’s movies painfully juvenile in the way he presents his angry diatribes about modern civilization. He lacks any sign of subtlety. He makes no effort to create characters that feel like they exist in anything resembling a real world. His grievances, which I 100% agree with by the way, are presented in a blunt inelegant manner that reminds me of conversations me and my friends would have when we were fresh out of high school and thought that we had the world figured out. It’s self-important soap boxing with no interest in presenting a balanced and realistic look at the troubles plaguing our society.
Now, this might not be so bad if he fully embraced the lunacy of his world. A lot of the complaints I have with Goldthwait could also be applied to Oliver Stone, who is certainly no stranger to soap boxing. However, in Natural Born Killers, Stone goes so over the top and so weird that the blunt messaging and unrealistic characters felt natural and had the intended impact. The cartoon world served as a good parody of ours. Goldthwait doesn’t go that far, his film worlds are not far removed from our own which makes his preachy characters and wooden dialogue stand out all the more.
I know I’ve written a lot without really saying anything about the movie in question but my criticisms of Goldthwait can be applied to any of his films, God Bless America just happens to be the latest and most egregious.
God Bless America is essentially one part Falling Down and one part Super (substitute Kick-Ass if you’re out of Super, it won’t alter the taste too much). A middle aged man gets fed up with the stupidy he sees in his neighbors, his workmates, his television, and even his kid. So he decides to go on a killing spree, targeting those he feels are most guilty for turning the world to shit. These targets range from spoiled teenagers to reality show hosts. He picks up an adoring 16 year old fangirl along the way who proves to be even more enthusiastic about this bloodshed than he is.
This lack of originality is one of the main reasons God Bless America ranks as the worst of Goldthwait’s films. Another major reason is his misguided attempts at being “edgy”. You get the sense that Goldthwait truly believes he is pushing envelopes with the “extreme” content of his films, but it mostly comes off as tired and laughable. His past movies have dealt with beastiality and auto-erotic asphyxiation but his approach to these topics just feels like a junior high kid who just learned how to curse.
It was funny seeing this film after talking to Mike Birbiglia about his film Sleepwalk With Me. Mike talked about how comedy has changed and how its hard to be edgy because at this point everything has been said and done. You can’t just say ‘cunt’ and get a reaction. He said really the edgiest thing you can do now is just to be honest. To let people in and tell your story. To open yourself up to scrutiny and criticism. To drop the facade of trying to be cool.
Goldthwait isn’t edgy at all, precisely because he’s trying SO hard to be.
