Hello everyone, apologies for my lack of blog last week but
I am back!
Review: God bless America
Bonnie and Clyde for the Youtube generation.
Have you grown tired of the media's celebration of
mediocrity and Z list celebrities created by
talent(less) shows? Do you feel like you are the only sane
person in this world of stupidity yet
when you express your views people look at you like you are
insane? Well I am pleased to say that
Bobcat Goldthwait, yes Zed from Police Academy 2, has
directed the film to give the enlightened a
voice.
God bless America focusses of Frank, an average office
worker whose daydreams are violent
fantasies involving shotguns. Frank is very much down on his
luck: his ex wife and daughter have
moved away, he is stuck in a dead end job, his neighbours
constantly keep him awake and block
his car in and a trip to the doctors reveals he has a brain
tumour. Frank, about to end it all as his
revolver enters his mouth, has an epiphany while a version
of 'My super sweet sixteenth' plays out
on his TV. He is going to do something to stop the downfall
of society.
The film then takes the form of a rather surreal road trip
involving a lot of preaching about how the
news and media outlets have turned us into sheep intertwined
with sickeningly amusing bouts of
murder. Frank is joined by Roxy on his travels, a 16 year
old schoolgirl who appreciates what Frank
is trying to achieve. Together they make a modern day Bonnie
and Clyde, reeling off lists of people
who deserve to die and often following through on these
conversations. My personal favourite was
a cinema based scene, it really makes you appreciate those
who adhere to cinema rules!
Mad Men alumni Joel Murray plays Frank as someone the
audience can really relate to. Although at
times his musings go beyond well constructed arguments
relating to modern society into preaching,
he is a sympathetic lead and I often found myself agreeing
with everything he said.
However the real star of God bless America is Roxy,
brilliantly portrayed by relative newcomer
Tara Lynne Barr. It is easy to draw comparisons to other
fictional female characters in this genre,
Kick Ass' Hit Girl and Leon's Mathilda being the foremost
examples. However Roxy's character is
able to take the features that made these characters so
prominent in pop culture and add a sense of
humanity to her portrayal. This is a film where it is the
stereotypical teenager, worried about her
looks and hateful towards her parents, gets to win and the
popular girls who always get what they
want get their just desserts!
Unfortunately God bless America didn't get the largest
distribution in the UK, I was lucky enough
to catch it as part of the Electric Cinema's 'Shock and
Gore' event. However I strongly recommend
getting to a screening if possible or waiting for its home
release. God bless America is a strongly
opinionated movie but don't let that put you off. The two
main characters give the script enough
humanity to make the audience find themselves agreeing that
society really has let itself slip.
4 Zombie Brains
http://bit.ly/wQL1iz
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