God Bless America (2011)

“God Bless America” (2011) is about Frank, your average middle-aged, middle-class, absolutely milquetoast failure of a human being.
He apparently has no capacity to understand why his actions and behaviors make those around him uncomfortable, using “well I was just trying to be nice” as his excuse.
In a post-#MeToo world, you’ll recognize that as the exact opposite of the right answer when trying to solve interpersonal problems, especially regarding workplace harassment.
So what I’m trying to say is that this movie has aged like milk.

Frank finds out he has terminal cancer and decides to make the most of the last few days of his life: by killing people. 
Ostensibly, he only wants to kill people who are “terrible.” But not the truly terrible people, like serial rapists or child abusers.
No.
Instead he decides that people who talk during the movies and Republicans deserve to get shot, and he does so remorselessly.
Somewhere in there, teenager Roxy finds him and joins in, following the reveal that  she’s disturbingly excited about watching him murder one of her classmates in cold blood.
Said classmate was  the main character of a particularly shitty reality show, and Frank had decided she wasn’t nice enough to get to keep living, despite the general knowledge that reality shows are scripted to explicitly show the worst in people, so it’s unclear why Frank decides this particular teen girl is the ideal starting point.

Roxy’s age is never clarified, but context clues suggest she’s somewhere between 15-17. Thus, when Frank decides to allow her to join him on his killing spree and take her across state lines, he’s committing a federal crime. Not that he or the movie seem to care.

So Frank and Roxy travel across the country in a car Frank stole from his neighbor, who Frank decided was an asshole, killing whomever they feel like whenever it’s convenient. There’s some stand-ins for the Westboro Baptist Church, some Tea Party members, an Alex Jones look-alike, and a dude who took up two parking spots.
I tallied 30+ people killed for no good reason.

At least Dexter (from the show of the same name) had a ‘code’ he followed when he killed people. Frank just killed anyone who was inconveniencing him.
To the directors: that doesn’t make a good hero or anti-hero. That just makes him a soulless freak. That’s not a character we can root for in any way, nor does it convey a message we can get behind.

Repeatedly during the movie, Frank would start on some diatribe about how “America is degrading” or “people aren’t nice anymore” or “[whingeing middle-age, white, male issues that he’s blaming on someone else].” At no point does he stop to consider that maybe he’s the problem: since everyone else seems to be content with the status quo, clearly he’s the only one who can fix things.

I spent most of the movie trying to figure out who’s political agenda was getting pushed. Considering it was all attacks on right-wing figures and ideals, I think this was supposed to be a “darkly satirical comedy” made by a left-wing studio, pointing out how the right-wing media reacts to things. 
Unfortunately for every single person who’s ever had to sit through this 104 minute morally-corrupt film, it’s neither “satirical” nor “comedy,” and only nails the “dark” part because we’re watching a completely remorseless serial killer.
The sentence “Obama Death Squad” was used unironically.

If you go online to Reddit.com and search for subreddits like r/KillThoseWhoDisagree or r/Im14andThisIsDeep or r/LateStageCapitalism, you’ll find people espousing just about everything that Frank “stood for” in this film, and that’s not a good thing.
If I can easily compare your movie to the worst parts of a social media website, that’s bad. 
No one is making a “Xenophobic Conspiracy Theory Twitter Campaign” flick or “Secret Facebook Group: Pedophiles Only: the Movie” for a reason.

Ultimately, Frank and Roxy get gunned down by police after they tried to shoot up “American Idol.” I think the audience was supposed to be rooting for the pair, as they’re played up as some sort of navel-gazing Bonny and Clyde duo.
Instead, I was just relieved it was over.

The phrase “god bless America” was used repeatedly and sarcastically, usually following one of Frank’s childish tantrums about what’s wrong with society today
Newsflash: society has always been terrible. There’s no golden era of human greatness; we just only ever read about the stellar figures from the past who actually made a difference. The ‘great unwashed masses’ have always been great and unwashed.

This was an unfun, not-self-aware version of “Fight Club” (2001) with all the pleasurable qualities of rubbing your nipples against the business end of a random orbital sander.
I wish I had a “-1 Claw” rating to give it.