Bad Words is the discovery of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. A relentless and unapologetic dark comedy, Bad Words is the anti-Rocky, an underdog story where the underdog is an outcast for completely ignoble reasons, but he sure is fun to watch being bad.
Guy Trilby (Jason Bateman) competes in a spelling bee because the rules define the age limit by when the child completed eighth grade. Trilby never finished eighth grade so technically he is still eligible. No one wants him there and no one’s rooting for this guy to beat all the kids, but Guy is actually trying to be a dick, so technically his hero’s journey is a success.
The script is by Andrew Dodge but Jason Bateman as director understands deadpan comedy, so he lets the story happen without trying to “sell” it. He gives the film a gritty look with handheld cameras (not aggressively shaky, just not pretty) and no glamour lighting, and he certainly pulls no punches.
From the first scenes when Guy is shit-talking the competition, Bad Words is just so wrong all the way. He plays pranks on spelling bee kids that would be traumatizing to young children going through puberty. The fact that he doesn’t care that he’ll give these kids permanent issues makes it funny. Comedy doesn’t try to be likable. Plus, he’s trying to defeat children! That’s where he begins and it gets worse from there.
If you are concerned that Guy won’t get his comeuppance, rest assured it’s still not easy for him to infiltrate this spelling bee. The spelling bee organization makes him uncomfortable every step of the way, giving him the worst room in the hotel and screwing with him in the competition. If he’s going to mock them, he’s going to have to work for it.
Bateman is not afraid to be completely unlikeable, which has a side effect of making him more likable. If he had a moment of remorse, we’d find him phony, but Guy is insulting, abrasive and racist. This isn’t just some adorable obnoxious guy. He’s verbally violent. This is the kind of character we don’t get to see a lot, and even Bateman has had to play the neutrally likable guy a lot. There’s a place for that, but Guy Trilby is a welcome disturbance.
One of the competitors, Chaitainya Chopa (Rohan Chand) is the precocious kid who tries to be Guy’s friend, but this doesn’t soften Guy like it would in a Hollywood movie. It actually makes him worse. Guy only includes Chaitainya in his worst antisocial behavior. There’s a scene with a lobster you won’t believe. Now, who do you think will end up as the final two contestants in the spelling bee? Duh, but let me assure you there’s a lot more going on than the usual sports movie rivalry arc. The story doesn’t just change up the formula, it actually makes it funnier.
There is a reason Guy is following this ridiculous path, and the film delivers exposition smoothly. It’s subtle. Bad Words trusts us to follow along and doesn’t want to ruin the momentum by stopping to explain too much. A reporter (Kathryn Hahn) covering Guy’s story provides the bulk of that exposition but she gets to be funny too, playing up her own shame in encouraging and facilitating Guy’s plan.
I was just impressed with Bad Words all around. It has a crazy premise and follows through. It knows how to solve the character problems without selling out the characters. It even knows what to do with the kids. These are mostly strengths of the script, and it’s an impressive first credit for Dodge, but I wonder how many of those scathing lines Bateman improvised himself, and I wonder what a great release it was for him. This is obviously a highly marketable film, so look for it when Focus Features releases it wide.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
