BAD WORDS (review)

Review by Elizabeth Robbins

I always hate it when I like a movie about despicable people. 

Jason Bateman’s new film, Bad Words, joins the ranks of Judd Apatow films (40 Year Old Virgin, Pineapple Express, etc.) about the under-achievers of the X and Y generations. 

Jason Bateman (Arrested Development, Juno) plays a 40 year old loser, Guy Drilby, who finds a loop hole in the rules of a national spelling bee that allows him to compete against school children.  Kathryn Hynn (Parks and Recreation) is Jenny, the disheveled reporter looking for a story, that helps Guy navigate the bee’s red tape to compete. 

I felt truly guilty laughing along with the rest of the audience as Guy selfishly stomps on a bunch of nine year old kids’ hard work and dreams to get to his goal. 

Does he have a good reason for it, some would say, arguably, yes, but it doesn’t take away the fact that I would probably want to kick Guy’s ass in real life. 

Yet, I loved watching Bateman’s casual delivery of the snarky and the obscene, unloaded with no more rancor than if he had just order a cup of coffee. 

So, why do I care about this A-hole and his selfish quest? 

Because the director made me. Bad Words is Jason Bateman’s film directorial debut. His transition from TV actor/director to the big screen has been seamless.  Simply put, the film is well made.  The comedic timing is excellent.  The cast has great chemistry.  They are just the right mix of comic and straight man. 

Allison Janney (Mom, West Wing) and Phillip Baker Hall (Magnolia, 50/50) are the perfect authoritarian foils to Bateman’s slacker. For all their prestige and achievement, you find they are no better than Guy.  And maybe that’s the key right there to why I can like Guy.  All the adults and even some of the kids in the film are just as manipulative and faulty as he is. At least he is upfront about being a jerk, and latter you see the possibility that he might actually have a heart.

In a culture were society is always pontificating about how each child is a “special, little snowflake”, it is refreshing to see a film that simultaneously pokes at them with a firy, red hot poker, and has a nugget of heart to remind us that each child should be to the important people in their lives.