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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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.