Comedy is a rather subjective thing on the whole. What is funny can mean different things to different people. Sometimes, comedies are about a happy go lucky fella standing up against impossible odds through shenanigans and things turn out alright in the end.
Bad Words is not that movie.
Because Bad Words is hilarious in a very, very different way. Very much in the dark and twisted way.
Guy Trilby (Jason Bateman) is forty year old asshole with no high school diploma and the biggest of all chips on his shoulder. With the help of reporter Jenny Widgeon (Kathryn Hahn), Guy has exploited a loophole in the "Golden Quill Spelling Bee" rules in order to join it... in spite of the fact that every other competitor is no older than ten. Why would he do such a thing? Well, despite Jenny's continued insistence, Guy is tight-lipped about the entire thing as he shoots up the standings to get to the national bee. Unwillingly befriended by a young Indian boy Chaitanya (Rohan Chand), nothing will get in Guy's way... and he'll willing to go to some frankly horrifically humorous lengths to achieve his ends.
I'll go ahead and tell you - this is not a film for your children. It is raunchy, rude, and unapologetic about it and takes it up to eleven... and then goes right past it. Several times. This after Bateman reportedly did edits where the script went "a little too far". This film, for the record, includes Guy doing things like - using a ketchup packet to fake a girl's first period or hiring a prostitute to flash the aforementioned Chaitanya. I am absolutely giddy thinking about what went "a little too far", as that is just two of the things that I could mention that happen in this film.
Now, from the previous descriptions of his acts, you may think that Guy is a completely irredeemable piece of human garbage. You would be correct. However, he's a funny completely irredeemable piece of human garbage who is never by the film made out to be a good person or anything but the protagonist in a very, very loose sense. He's awful, and we're supposed to think that he's awful. The film never tries to paint him in a positive light or try to sugarcoat any of his attitudes or methods. It honestly just makes it even funnier, as we watch this guy seemingly-haphazardly coast through everything he does while showing off a surprising amount of intellect and drive. He also draws the worst out of others, which leads them to committing acts that are almost as bad.
It's also helped by how Jason Bateman does a weirdly detached, yet somehow immensely energetic performance for the character that balances well with Chand's upbeat and wide-eyed young genius character. Also, Hahn and Bateman have a surprising amount of chemistry for two people who have two scenes of very graphic hate sex.
...nope, not joking about that, either.
It's honestly a great black comedy on the whole, but it's definitely something you'll need to be in the mood for or at the very least have a twisted sense of humor. It's not for everyone, but it's a pretty solid film that I have to say I very much enjoyed. Okay, that's not entirely fair. I was howling with laughter through most of it, but I'm admittedly someone with a ever-so-slightly twisted sense of humor.
Bad Words was brought to us by Darko Entertainment, Aggregate Films, MXN Entertainment, and Focus Features.
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