Regular readers of this site will know my oft-mentioned collection of five favorite actors. Those actors are Harrison Ford, Robert Downey Jr., Bruce Willis, Bryan Cranston, and last but not least, Jason Bateman. Previously, only Cranston had tried his hand at directing, and he absolutely excelled. Naturally, when I heard that Bateman would be stepping behind the camera, I was sold on the idea immediately.
Bad Words chronicles the rise of a stubborn middle school dropout named Guy Trilby as he finds a loophole to enter a spelling bee, in which he makes his way to the National Championship. With almost the entire nation against him, Trilby enjoys every minute of the attention while at the same time, he befriends a young contestant, and grows a little along the way.
The story subverts any discernible patterns and cuts through the bull. It almost anticipates what you think is going to happen, then pretty much says "Yeah, we thought you might think that, so we're gonna do this." It's a smart, raucous script with original jokes, and gags, no matter far they seem to take it. Frankly, i'm surprised there haven't been lobster gags like the ones in here before.
Bateman is a natural in the director's chair, eliciting the humor out of every scene and getting his actors to showcase their entire ranges. He has made a film that is easily one of the funniest I've seen in a while, but also at the same time has a tremendous amount of heart hidden by the main character's misanthropic exterior. He chips away until we see the point, and when we do, it's glorious. But best of all, he makes us work for it.
We've seen Bateman go against his clean cut, polite exterior before in The Change-Up, but he basically was playing a caricature of Ryan Reynolds. In his lead role of Guy Trilby, he crafts a new role he can call his own. As opposed to the appeasing Michael Bluth, here he is the foul mouthed, stubborn anti-hero that elicits laughter at every turn, and clicks with the inner voice that thinks what it would never say. Even the way the man shuts his eyes on the airplane is magnificently characterized to a specific role that he is crafting. This is easily the best Jason Bateman has every been.
Kathryn Hahn (who you may recognize from her brief arc on Parks and Recreation) plays the reporter following Guy as he turns the spelling world upside down. As with the others in this film, she doesn't try to fill any stock, she gets her point across and has unique quirks that keep her from being just another busy-body journalist.
Philip Baker Hall and Allison Janney in their roles as the spelling bee officials trying to get rid of Guy feel a little cliched at first, but they develop into something more that works to move the story along.
From start to finish, Bad Words is a racy laugh riot with an outstanding performance by Jason Bateman, who also proves he can run the show too. Check it out.
A-
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