Back again. To get back in the swing of things I chose God Bless America. There are spoilers in this post and I'm sure it's going to be a little rough around the edges as it's been awhile.
On a mission to rid society of its most repellent citizens, terminally ill Frank makes an unlikely accomplice in 16-year-old Roxy.
Synopsis
This movie starts with a series of sad and unfortunate moments. Frank (Joel Murray) lays awake at night because his noisy neighbors and their kid keep him up, which spirals into him watching bad reality T.V. and cable "news" shows with idiotic commentary. He then goes to work in the morning, where everyone is discussing the bad singer on the notable singing show (modeled after American Idol). "Bro, you think you're too good to watch it?". Frank then gets fired from work because he sent flowers to a co-worker in an attempt to be nice, that came off as harassment. Things only get better when he finds out he has a brain tumor.
Frank hits a wall, when watching something similar to "My Super Sweet 16" and seeing a girl break down because she got a Bentley instead of an Escalade; which then parallels his own life when his 10 year calls him screaming because she got a Blackberry instead of an iPhone.
So he steals his neighbors car and drives down to where the brat who just turned 16 lives and kills her. This is where he meets Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr). Roxy is another girl at the school and believes things might be interesting if Frank is really committed to cleaning up the filth in society. She talks him out of killing himself and instead going on a killing spree to set the world right. Given Roxy is from a trailer park family, where her step-dad abuses her Frank figures taking her along wouldn't be the worst thing she's been through.
Things proceed as planned.
They kill a high-profile figures that spread stupidity across America. Everything is very chaste though. Frank makes it very clear that he has no interest in Roxy. She's 16 and that would be inappropriate.
While stopped at a motel for the night, Frank is half watching the news, when he sees something that changes everything. Roxy's parents are trailer park trash, but a boring middle-class family, that wants their daughter back. Frank sends her packing. After he sends Roxy on, his doctor calls, only to tell him, he was looking at the wrong MRI and that he doesn't have a tumor.
Frank then makes the decision to finish big.
Spoiler
The American-Idol-type show is having their finale and they singer that they made fun of in the auditions -- the one who can't sing, probably has a mental disability, and now has an album -- is suppose to perform. Frank sees this as intolerable. American making fun of the disabled; a guy who tried to kill himself a few weeks prior.
So he heads to the arena where the show is, with a bomb and guns and takes the building hostage. He believes he is getting justice for the man they had teased, but comes to find out, he tried to kill himself, not because they were making fun of him, but because they hadn't initially invited him to perform at the finale.
This is too much. Roxy's there and joins him in this final moment. Police surround the stage, but Frank and Roxy manage to kill the judges, the disabled guy and members of the audience before being brought down themselves.
Thoughts
Frank isn't wrong about the world, but perhaps it has as much to do with entertainment, as the company he decides to keep. You don't have to be inflicted with bullshit. He choose to. He could have easily immersed himself into quality books, movies, and podcasts. Buck the trends that annoy you, but he didn't.
Everything about Frank says repressed white guy who can't get it together.
I have a hard time with people who romanticize American when people lived in the moment and we weren't hammered by what is considered "trash" media. They are partically asking for the world to regress back to virtually no rights for anyone, but straight white males. Sorry, but I find the premise of this troubling.
All in all, this wasn't a favorite of mine. Bobcat Goldthwait wrote and directed it, I wish he had just made it bigger. Gone further with idea of ridding society of trash, as opposed to focusing of this relationship between 40-something Frank and 16-year-old Roxy. I just found the two kind of boring
