By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.4
Director: Bobcat Goldthwait
Starring: Joel Murray | Mackenzie Brooke Smith | Melinda Page Hamilton | Rich McDonald | Tara Lynne Barr
Country: united_states
Year: 2012
Running time: 105
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1912398/
Thom says: “Another TIFF entry that I had ridiculously high expectations for that crashed me back to Earth. I loved Goldthwait’s WORLD’S GREATEST DAD so much that I included it in my TOP 10 for 2009 so this was certain to please. It started out superbly with a collage of reality shows that definitely were ripe for skewering. Observer Frank shortly thereafter is inundated with terrible news: he loses his job, finds out he has little time left with inoperable cancer, is rejected by both his ex-wife and bratty daughter, is subjected to constant noise from obnoxious neighbors, and finally after deciding to kill an especially insufferable reality star, he also decides to kill himself. Interrupted by a young teen girl (Tara Lynne Barr) of like mind they decide to set off on a road trip to rid the United States of its detritus and filth that abounds throughout the country. So the film really becomes a discourse on what is wrong with American pop culture, including celebrity tittle-tattle, political news broadcasts, texting, and societal networking, all worthy diatribes to be certain. But it doesn’t stop there and finally I began questioning where the satire failed and I began picking it apart. It’s well and good to be shocking and disgusting if it bravely lays blame correctly but to drift off into silliness deadens the effect. The desperate man and his moll even begin questioning each other’s goals. Joel Murray (so good in ‘MAD MEN’ lets it hang out here but he finally misses the mark as Frank, mainly due to his being an uninteresting cipher. That much of the film is hilarious I really hate to carp but by the film’s end I felt really let down. The crowd I saw the film really seemed to love it and frankly maybe I’m just too much of an old fogy at this point in my life, I’d love to hear other points-of-view. It’s easy seeing this becoming a big ‘Midnight Movie’ success. 2 cats”
Julie says: “I know it’s probably not the most politically correct movie these days but I loved it and I’m giving it a 4.83 cats – This was really well done. Great acting, very funny, great cinematography, sound and production design. And I loved the clothes.
“In the interview with Bobcat Goldwait he said, ‘There’s a lack of kindness in our country…. I’m trying to make a comedy that asks where are we going as a culture’.
“Joel Murray did an excellent job. He had the just right amount of requisite sadness and sweetness for his character. Tara Lynne Barr was also excellent as his spunky angry sidekick – somewhat akin to Ellen Page in SUPER. The relationship between the two of them was special. 4.83 cats”
Toni says: “I was sold on the first half of this film conceptually and then once the sidekick was added and the warmrh of the characters was lost that it fell apart and the two had less chemistry than in the characters in SUPER.
“The film to me definitely had its moments to me especially in the main characters to me that remind me of the director’s last and some of Mike Judge’s work like Idiocracy.
“The irony is that that the characters make fun of Juno and Ellen Page and yet the sidekick us that character.
“I really wanted to love this especially since Bobcat’s prior film, THE WORLD’S GREATEST DAD, really hit home to me in Robin Williams character and I think was his best performance.
“I will add that Bobcat has come a ong way since his POLICE ACADEMY days in these films and in SHAKES THE CLOWN.
“He was in person at IFFB. I couldn’t make the day and time and had seen it on VOD via Amazon that weekend but I am guessing he would have been a good person to present a film or do a Q and A”