It's hard to express just how bloody, depraved and sometimes insane Bobcat Goldthwait's God Bless America can be. The latest film from the Police Academy actor-turned-indie-director premiered as a Midnight Madness selection at last fall's Toronto Film Festival, and just to give you a taste of what happens, opens with our main character (Mad Men's Joel Murray) fantasizing about murdering his next-door neighbors and their baby. There is a lot of blood. Obviously the midnight crowd ate it up, and Magnolia Pictures is hoping regular audiences do the same, when they open God Bless America on video on-demand April 6 and in theaters May 11. They've released a new poster for the film as well, which you can see below.
I mean, you can tell by the fact that the two main characters are holding guns that some violence is about to occur. But don't assume that because there's a pretty teenage girl on the poster-- played by Tara Lynn Barr in a foulmouthed and amazing performance-- that this is some gross fantasy about a middle-aged man getting back at everyone who ever wronged him and gets a hot new girlfriend in the process. Our hero Frank is disgusted with the way American society has developed, but that goes to middle-aged men who fantasize about teen girls as well-- the relationship between our two heroes is much more a father-daughter vibe than a multi-generational Bonnie and Clyde. Though, at one point, they do deliberately dress like the famous gangsters. Yeah, you kind of have to see it to get it.
If you've liked Goldthwait's darkly funny films like Sleeping Dogs Lie and especially the recent World's Greatest Dad, you ought to give God Bless America a shot too. It's strange and definitely not for everybody, but that's what we've liked about Goldthwait since the 80s. It'd be a tragedy if he changed that now.
