SXSW 2012: Bobcat Goldthwait’s ‘God Bless America’ is No ‘Network’

Thank God for Bobcat Goldthwait. While many other directors are culling together banal statements — sometimes not even a statement — and hack representations on how they think the world should go, Goldthwait is saying something. What he says isn’t always said subtly. More often than not, it’s said in the most unflinching, some call it abrasive, ways imaginable. When Goldthwait isn’t subtle, his art suffers for it. Case in point, God Bless America, a film ten times more interesting than the cliched image pushing we so often get with today’s filmmakers. Even when Goldthwait speaks off key, his voice is a welcomed departure from the norm. Joel Murray plays Frank, an everyday man who is fed up with the world. He listens to his ignorant neighbors bickering, listens to their snot-filled baby screaming at all hours of the day. Frank wants something to change, and, when he is diagnosed with a …