An aggressive and harsh satire, Bad Words is the first directorial work for Jason Bateman who received much-screen exposure before. Here, he plays a Guy Trilby, a 40 year old bum who looks for ways of circumventing the rules of The Golden Quill Spelling Bee and does nothing as the audiences, contest officials, upset parents and a bunch of spoiled over-achieving eighth graders do everything to stop him from doing so.
The problem is that Guy is obnoxious, very rude, and extremely headstrong. The problem presented will get worse since he is the all-American champion of illusory spelling. This was the first insight that Guy will turn out to be obnoxiously skillful against all visual aids in challenge attempts as portrayed in opening scene where after dominating Regionals and claiming the winning trophy, he heads for the first televised Golden Quill Nationals (which is a fundamental tension builder) sweeping all the Junior Mexican spelling bee male contestants.
Comparable to Torture, the film did not fail under the direction of Bateman as he managed to stick to the plot while providing room for the Arrested Development star’s jokes and jabs towards people. Let’s just say that there is enough of the actor’s trademark wink-and-one-liners. Still, Bateman appears to follow the Danny McBride style of acting in this one – he is an asshole filled with cursing and casual racism and still… he is a lovable one. As a minor diversion for Bateman, apols for the pun, normally associated with starring as a smartass don’t do any effs given but a fully a swording out Guy Trilby from Betkyois quite just enough in distance that the audience does not feel watching the same from him.
Apart from Bateman, Bad Words acknowledges a talented cast which includes Kathryn Hahn, Allison Janney and Philip Baker Hall. Hahn takes on the character of Jenny Widgeon, a hard-edged, online journalist who throws in her lot with Guy, helping him strategize his way through the spelling competitions. At the same time Janney and Hall play out the negative characters of the competition’s administrator Dr. Deagan and the chief Dr. Bowman. Fisher particularly garners good comic moments every once in a while throughout the film and her character Jenny is as pretty as the new cross lay which Bateman’s character has, and that nice grind by both of them- literally and figuratively, is commendable.
Of course, it is Bateman’s chemistry with young Rohan Chand, who plays fellow contestant Chaitanya Chopra, that stands out in Bad Words. At first the rude and impolite Guy bullies the 10 year old and even calls him web-pest, but soon becomes worried of him, after realizing that there are strict restrictions on what Chaitanya can ‘enjoy’ because of his strict father. So, of course, Guy also takes Chaitanya out of the hotel and the two have a wild night filled with crazy, crazy and some serious horsing around that ends up in a sort of a music video with the boys’ slow motion intros all set to a loud Beastie Boys song. Of course, the friendship sometimes crosses the line as both of them have to participate in the spelling bee competition, where they try to outdo the other, but every tale has its twists, and in the unfolding of the story we realize that there is more to Guy’s participation than meets the eye.
But still, Bad Words is mostly cliche and empty stupid comedy, and granted there are good-looking performers and some funny moments, the source material by Andrew Dodge is very bland. Also, you will be able to predict the twist from a very long distance even though it is able to work out in a good way. In general, the new bateman’s comedic movie is an improvement of how the other two previous movies came out and it is refreshing seeing him in such a role that is more risky than his mainstream projects. (I’m looking at you Identity Thief.)
Conclusion
Jason Bateman’s first directorial work is pleasing vulgar comedy that is mostly bang for your buck thanks to good narrative and great acting. With that being said, Bad Words is not a unique film and even though most people would enjoy it, its crass humour is pretty of the ‘been there, done that’ nature.
