by Steve Dollar
Comedian
Bobcat Goldthwait, whose career as a filmmaker has yielded such dark and excoriating satirical fare as
Shakes the Clown and
World's Greatest Dad, has been making the festival rounds for months with his latest comedy,
God Bless America. The film, newly released, is the director's answer to
Natural Born Killers and
Network.
Joel Murray (Goldthwait's co-star in
One Crazy Summer) is Frank, a middle-aged corporate cubicle denizen abandoned by his wife and daughter and left to stew in his bachelor apartment, festering in anger, frustration and failure. One day, his fantasies of violent revenge on a reality show world spill over when he loses his job and is diagnosed with a brain tumor. With nothing left to lose, Frank goes on a rampageâ€"and he reluctantly takes on a co-pilot in death-dealing, Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), a teenaged sympathizer who hates the world perhaps even more zealously than he does.
I caught up with Goldthwait during the South by Southwest film festival in March, where he was premiering the film with its stars. During a chat in the lounge of the Driskill Hotel, the trio talked about their favorite reality TV shows, the death of common decency and
Diablo Cody (don't ask, just see the movie).
Continued reading INTERVIEW: Bobcat Goldthwait, Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr...
