Bad Words
43 year old Guy Trilby, who has never completed the 8th grade, finds a loophole in the regulations and participates in the largest spelling bee in the USA, The Golden Quill. His aim is to take revenge for something done to him in the past.
2 July 1973, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA
21 August 1971, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
14 February 1929, Brooklyn, New York, USA
19 November 1959, Dayton, Ohio, USA
June 23, 2016
Chand holds his own opposite Bateman and steals much of the film with a deceptively ruthless cunning, hidden beneath the cutest, most innocent smile in the world.
April 09, 2016
The film's dialogue is so crude, its star so inherently - and paradoxically - likable, and its plot so lightweight that it essentially cancels itself out.
March 27, 2014
Trashy, ribald laughs in the Bad Santa vein, this marks Bateman's directorial debut; it's not much to look at, but at least he has the nerve to push the insolence, profanity, and brutal insult humor to its absolute limits.
October 20, 2014
[Allison Janney's] presence on any show or movie ultimately has a kind of 'Poochie' effect: whenever she's not on screen you just expect everyone else to be wondering, "Where's Janney?", hoping that somehow spirits her back.
March 21, 2014
While Bad Words is only sporadically funny, Bateman throws himself into the role without shame or ego. The film is also his directing debut, and a very capable one.
March 27, 2014
Almost unrelenting in its takedown both of an American institution and the country's obsession with victories big and small, Bad Words is more misanthropic fantasy than satiric fiction.
July 14, 2016
Bateman has cornered the market on ornery average dudes with rapier wits.
March 23, 2014
In his directorial debut, Bateman casts himself as a foul-mouthed, racist jerk. It's a stretch for the nice-guy actor, but the role doesn't suit him.
May 15, 2016
Bateman handles the edgy material with confidence and gets excellent performances from co-stars Kathryn Hahn, Allison Janney and Philip Baker Hall, and particularly from Rohan Chand.
March 28, 2014
The laughs in this film are all mean-spirited or just frat-boy gross.
November 14, 2014
...a withering send-up of our kid-obsessed culture, in which childhood has been reimagined as a procession of parent-directed accomplishments.
