God Bless America (film)

Plot

Frank Murdoch (Joel Murray) is a middle-aged insurance salesman living in Syracuse, New York, who is sick with how the United States has fallen into a state of rudeness based on pop culture, talk radio, television, and Internet influences. After a boring evening of watching television, Frank visualizes killing his loud and inconsiderate neighbors, whose baby's screams exacerbate his chronic migraine headaches and rob him of sleep. His ex-wife Alison (Melinda Page Hamilton) has custody of their daughter Ava (Mackenzie Brooke Smith), who has become a typical spoiled brat. Matters come to a head when he is fired after 11 years' service at the insurance company for obtaining a female co-worker's address without authority merely so as to innocently send her roses to lift her spirits; then told by his profane and disinterested doctor that he has an inoperable, terminal brain tumor.

Frank prepares to commit suicide but stops as his TV features a reality show starring Chloe (Maddie Hasson), an extremely spoiled teenager, and has an epiphany. The next day, he steals his noisy neighbor's car and drives to Chloe's school and, after unsuccessfully attempting to blow her up in her car, he shoots her at point-blank range. One of Chloe's classmates, Roxanne "Roxy" Harmon (Tara Lynne Barr), witnesses this and applauds him. Roxy follows Frank back to his motel where he is once again preparing to commit suicide; initially egging him on, Roxy then talks him out of it. Frank explains to Roxy that he only wants bad people to die – people who have committed blatant acts of cruelty and stupidity against their fellow man. Roxy suggests they kill Chloe's parents and he agrees. Frank shoots Chloe's father (Larry Miller), and after a brief chase, Roxy stabs her mother (Dorie Barton). Roxy convinces Frank to take her along by painting herself the tragic victim of her drug-addicted mother and rapist step-father. They then decide to go on the lam, continuing their killing spree. They visit a movie theatre to watch a documentary about the 1968 My Lai Massacre. During the film, several teenagers enter the nearly empty theatre and immediately act obnoxiously, talking aloud and on their cell phones. One of them throws popcorn at Frank. Frank and Roxy shoot and kill all but the least aggravating of them who Frank thanks for not being rude. Subsequently, they kill several others, including a rude man who double-parks his car, several extremist religious right protesters, and Michael Fuller (Regan Burns), a popular, abrasive conservative political television commentator.

During an evening while they're laying low, Roxy suggests to Frank that they move to France and 'go legit', to raise goats and make cheese, and avoid prosecution for the murders they've committed. Returning a phone message from his doctor, Frank learns there was a mix-up with his MRI results (the image was of another patient named Frank) and that he has no tumor and probably just suffers from any one of a number of relatively inconsequential ailments. Frank's new lease on life is spoiled when, while eating breakfast in the motel diner with Roxy and discussing their travel-to-France plans, a leering redneck at the next table labels Roxy an underage prostitute and Frank her pimp. The same day, Frank sees a TV news missing person report in which Roxy's parents (Andrea Harper and David Mendenhall) appear wholesome and concerned, a far cry from her description. Incensed at the deception, Frank takes out his anger on the leering diner, garroting him in his room. Frank takes the man's pickup truck and, as he is leaving, tells Roxy he knows the truth. She confesses but says she had to get away from a life of bland conformance and experience something 'un-normal'. Frank leaves her the stolen car and they split up.

Frank buys an AK-47 assault rifle from an illegal arms dealer (Mike Tristano) and makes his way to Los Angeles. Frank sees another TV news report that shows Roxy back home with her elated parents and that he is wanted for abducting her. Unbeknownst to him, Roxy is not happy to be back home. Frank goes to and gains access into the American Superstarz studio, kills several audience members and one judge, and holds the other judges, contestants, and the audience hostage. As the SWAT team arrives, Roxy also appears and joins Frank on stage, and she apologizes for lying to him. Frank makes a brutally honest speech in front of the TV camera about the ridiculousness and selfishness that is promoted in today's American society and on television. Frank then tells Roxy she is a pretty girl, and they proceed to shoot the judges, contestants and several members of the audience before they are gunned down by the police.

Festivals

God Bless America was selected to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, South By Southwest Film Festival, as well as the Maryland Film Festival and the Brisbane International Film Festival.

Release

God Bless America premiered on September 9, 2011 at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, and was released video on demand on April 6, 2012 and in theatres on May 11, 2012. The DVD and Blu-ray for the film were released on July 3, 2012.

Critical response

God Bless America received generally mixed reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave a 67% approval rating with an average rating of 6.2/10 based on 107 reviews; its consensus read: "A darkly comic polemic on modern culture, God Bless America is uneven and somewhat this but the ideas behind this revenge fulfilment journey has primal appeal." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gave an average score of 56 out of 100 based on 24 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out 4, and wrote: "this is a film that begins with merciless comic savagery and descends into merely merciless savagery. But wow, what an opening." James Berardinelli of Reelviews praised the film by giving 3 stars out of 4, calling it "funny but it is also at times uncomfortable". Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave a C, and described the film as "a burlesque that turns into a harangue that turns into a rampage." Ella Taylor of NPR gave a positive review, and wrote: "God Bless America ends with a couple of tale-twisting bullet orgies designed to take your preconceptions, as well as your nerve-endings, by surprise."

Some negative reception was due to many critics noticing similarities to the film Falling Down.