Bad Words 2013
Jason Bateman has made a career of playing the same kind of guy since he was a kid. When he has good material, he can knock it out of the park (Arrested Development). But sometimes he can also just phone it in, counting on that personality to overcome the lack of writing (a bit part in Dodgeball comes to mind), so I was worried about this movie which didn’t get great reviews, didn’t even make back its very small $10 million production costs at the box office, and which I found four years later for a dollar at Dollar Tree. But the writing is there, horribly dark and twisted, but incredibly entertaining to watch as this very unlikely story about a complete jerk unfolds. He has some great support from 9 year old Rohan Chand as one of the spelling bee contestants who is a charming and upbeat foil to Bateman’s dark sarcasm. Other finely crafted performances come from Allison Janney, Kathryn Hahn, Rachel Harris, and another great character performance by Philip Baker Hall. The movie doesn’t overstay its welcome, staying fairly tight and winding up in about 90 minutes. It is not for everyone, but if you don’t mind raunchy, offensive, off color humor, you could like it.
Written: 14 Sep 2019
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital