God Bless America-2012

Director Bobcat Goldthwait

Starring Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr

Scott’s Review #1,543

Reviewed August 4, 2026

Grade: A-

Made in 2012, God Bless America is a satisfying experience for viewers who enjoy seeing assholes and mean people get their due.

Its central characters (the heroes) blow the brains out of those miserable human beings we meet every so often and can only fantasize about taking to task.

Shrouded in dark humor and satire, not to mention gore, director/comedian Bobcat Goldthwait revels in situations that fulfill a desire for justice.

He thereby makes his two prominent characters extremely likable, and the rest of the cast hated.

Frank Murdoch (Joel Murray), who lives alone in Syracuse, New York, is middle-aged and works as an insurance salesman in a depressing windowless office.

His colleagues are trite and superficial and lead meaningless lives, finding satisfaction only in talking about a reality show or something mindless each morning.

After being fired for sending a colleague flowers after obtaining her address, Frank is told by his doctor that he has an incurable brain tumor. In addition, his ex-wife Alison (Melinda Page Hamilton) has custody of their daughter Ava (Mackenzie Smith), who has become a spoiled brat.

Frank is sick of how America has fallen into a state of depravity based on pop culture, TV, the Internet, and talk radio. He fantasizes about killing his neighbors, whose screaming baby worsens his migraines and keeps him awake all night.

After his string of missteps, he goes off the deep end, fed up with the cruelty and stupidity of American culture. He meets teenage Roxy Harmon (Tara Lynne Barr), who shares his rage, and they team up to whack reality TV stars, bigots, and other repugnant creatures.

While the premise is not meant to be taken seriously, viewers who go along with it, get the jokes, and understand the crazy situations will find much satisfaction in God Bless America.

The characters who are killed are so completely over the top and raucously annoying that not even a shred of decency emits from their pores.

We cheer and celebrate their demise.

Frank’s stupid neighbors who talk about the most uninteresting and superficial subjects, like a reality show or an action movie, are trite and guzzle whatever little pleasure they can muster.

In the husband’s case, it’s a tacky bright yellow sports car.

Later, a self-absorbed reality star named Chloe (Maddie Hasson) and her equally obnoxious parents are offed in appropriate and satisfying form.

These characters are a representation of the idiocy of America, whose attention is caught by American Superstarz, a talent show craze featuring an intellectually disabled man named Steven Clark, whom the judges mock for his attempts at singing.

Watching the film in 2026, fifteen years after it was made, is powerful and telling.

Four years before the terrible reign of Donald Trump, who ruined American politics and the United States as a whole, who knew that the characters in God Bless America would resonate even more years later?

In a 2026 world of MAGA, ICE, and incompetence in the White House, the United States is even worse than God Bless America states!

After all, it’s the stupidity of voters who would actually elect a baffoonish reality star as their national leader.

You might say ‘it served ’em right’ if not for the other sensible and intelligent portion of the United States.

Goldthwait clearly falls into this bucket as he writes a clever and brilliant screenplay crackling with wackiness that sadly holds in real life.

The people who see God Bless America are largely those who get the humor and are intelligent enough to understand what Goldthwait is going for.

The rest won’t have a clue, which is the reason the film was made in the first place.

The film slows a bit when Frank and Roxy suffer from a misunderstanding and a lie about her past life comes to light. There’s also a bit of sentimentality, which is not the strongest part of the film.

These aspects are not as interesting as the scenes of the pair traversing the United States shoot-em-up style or the wonderful hostage standoff finale.

God Bless America (2011) is a satirical, well-written, and well-produced film solely made for smart people.