Review of "God Bless America"

The superficiality of modern society has become too much for middle aged Frank. When he discovers that he is terminally ill due to a tumor in his brain, he decides to take out his frustrations on the rude, inconsiderate and worthless people around him, with the help of his accomplice: a quirky, teenaged loner named Roxy.

God Bless America
Starring: Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr
Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait
My Opinion: A fun, but fanciful ride

This movie is not unlike a comedic, action- driven version of Saw with grindhouse-y undertones. However, instead of immoral acts feeding the Jigsaw in this metaphor, it's reality television. The movie presents spoofs of much-loved reality classics such as My Super Sweet Sixteen, Bad Girls Club and American Idol. The events in the fake shows are incredibly accurate. For example, on Tuff Gurls a girl plucks a tampon out of her vagina and throws the bloody cotton in the face of her housemate. I will admit that I really wish this happened on the actual Bad Girls Club, but the film makes a pungent point with this wildly entertaining moment: a television show on a network that claims itself as "for women" is doing a whole lot of damage to the feminist movement. This is what drives Frank crazy.
The story is framed by the season of American Superstars, the alias for Idol. When we are first introduced to Frank, he is in an insomniac state partly brought on by his incredibly immature and inconsiderate neighbors. He habitually alleviates the sleeplessness with television where he watches the auditions for Superstarz, which, like its real-life counterpart, resembles a freak show. Rather than William Hung, Steven Clark is the grossly incompetent singer who becomes both ridiculed and glamorized. Steven occasionally haunts the screen, reminding us of the driving force behind the terror Frank wreaks.
God Bless America holds a lot of water in its criticisms of our nation. We are superficial and filled with mind-numbing pop culture talks about LiLo and TomKat, but Frank's interpretation of the world is what's killing him. The film does a decent job of connoting that as well, especially in regards to his broken family and disjointed life in Syracuse. However, the film lacks some solidity in its story. What turns Frank from suicidal to homicidal is merely a redundancy. Furthermore, the film sheds only a dim light on what drives his partner in crime, Roxy. Other than the fact that she feels like an outsider, we don't know what makes this young girl hate the world so much. She's incredibly intelligent, very opinionated and a wonderful character, but she comes close to the cookie-cutter angsty teen that is so lovable in comedies of today.
My final criticism is the believability. Normally, I don't consider this, but for a film that maintains such stark criticism and wit, I think it matters that the law enforcement was all but absent. Roxy and Frank kill four different people in a movie theater, and they walk out easily. Their faces are on the news, yet there is never a chase. The media would be an even better antagonist had it provided more conflict for the heroines of the tale. Had it been an entire character, one that was pursuing the protagonists' demise, the stakes would have been higher and any of the dragging present in the film, no matter how slight, would have vanished. The film donated its final moment to a respectful homage to the classic Bonnie and Clyde, but it would have worked better modeling its plot after the film also.
Over all, this is a pretty good film. It's hilarious and highly entertaining with golden dialogue and a fun premise. Yet, in the end, it's another black comedy that just doesn't aspire to greatness. Whatever, I liked it.