Bad Words

Patheos

 

Take Slumdog Millionaire. Replace "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" with a spelling bee, Jamal with a 40-year-old named Guy, and Latika with, well, someone else. What's the result? Bad Words.

Guy (Jason Bateman) isn't really a people person. He lives alone, was abandoned by his father as a child and works as a warranty proofreader. Tick him off and he'll insult your race, gender, age, children, sexual orientation, appearance, or whatever he's feeling at the moment.

Guy has a photographic memory, and even though his 8th grade guidance counselor saw him as a genius, Guy never made it to high school. That makes him eligible to compete in a national spelling bee, despite the fact that he's 40. The bee's equivalent of pageant moms don't take too kindly to Guy's participation, so they throw chairs at his car and threaten the tournament's directors (Allison Janney & Philip Baker Hall) if Guy isn't removed from the competition. Much to everyone's anger (and the audience's delight), the loophole prohibits Guy's disqualification based on age alone.

10-year-old speller Chaitanya works diligently to befriend Guy. Guy's racial slurs bounce right off the lovable boy played by Rohan Chand - a young actor who makes performing look easy in what might be the film's best part aside from Bateman himself. After much effort on Chaitanya's part, Guy takes the boy under his wing, bringing him along on his wildly inappropriate nightly adventures.

Bad Words is 2014's first great comedy, and while it may be insulting, degrading, and jaw-dropping to witness Bateman effortlessly spew out insults, it's what makes Bad Words the movie that it is. Maybe it's just the film had just the right amount of raunchiness, but Bad Words is just too good to overlook, and it's a nice addition to Jason Bateman's respectable body of work.

Rating: 4/5