In fits and starts, sobering fragments of Guy’s troubled childhood emerge throughout the course of the film. Minutes later, he squeezes ketchup onto a girl’s chair, congratulating her on reaching womanhood.īut Guy’s more than just a foul-mouthed misanthrope, and Bateman makes a point to reach behind the curtain of acerbity and unravel his character’s backstory. He hands a fellow competitor a pair of women’s panties and whispers something about the kid’s mom. In one scene, a cherub-faced competitor sitting next to Guy asks, “What are you doing up on stage, weirdo?” Without a missed beat, Guy responds with, “Your chair called me for help.” His pranks go beyond verbal barrages and even incorporate psychological warfare. Screenwriter Andrew Dodge crams the first act with dose after derisive dose of Guy’s smartassery. Put in a way consistent with Bad Words’ setting and R-rating, this premise is a gag-filled C-L-U-S-T-E-R-F-U-C-K. If her article ever gets published, it probably wouldn’t sit well with the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics. Accompanying Guy to the spelling bee is journalist Jenny Widgeon (Kathryn Hahn), whose off-the-record, under-the-sheets interactions with him get in the way of her reporting. With a few correctly arranged vowels and consonants, he manages to intimidate his competitors, anger their parents and land the Golden Quill its first nationally televised tournament. In the film, Bateman plays protagonist Guy Trilby, a 40-year-old professional proofreader who finds a regulatory loophole and spells his way into the 111th Golden Quill spelling bee, a prestigious national competition normally reserved for kids below the ninth grade. This March, he aligns his comedic chops with his filmmaking interests in his directorial debut, Bad Words. After more than 30 years in the film industry, multiple sitcom successes and some questionable 80’s hair, Bateman’s brand of humor is all but trademarked. Then again, not many actors have the wit and comedic timing of Jason Bateman. Not many actors can say this with the right balance of conviction and self-deprecation to hammer home the joke. Part of me thinks this kid just isn’t cut out for competition and the other part of me thinks he was just trolling the entire audience.“I’m a huge narcissist, and I just watch myself all the time.” And in keeping with YouTube tradition, the comments on this video get predictably racist three comments in. I would have flipped over the podium and ran out of the auditorium, but the kid sticks it out and spells the word correctly, shocking himself more than anyone. And “Sardoodledom” will always be funnier than “eucalyptus.” Van Halen with Diamond Dave will always win over Sammy Hagar. “Could you repeat the word for the 20th time, please?”Īny kid that’s made it to at least the 5th grade knows has a familiarity with the word “numbnuts.” Now spelling “numnah” is where things can get confusing. In celebration of Bateman’s Bad Words, here are a few “bad words” that helped to produce some of the most awkward moments in spelling bee history. It also happens to work incredibly well as a cauldron for cooking up insecurity and awkwardness among Asian adolescents. Jason Bateman stars in and makes his directorial debut this weekend with Bad Words, a comedy about a jerk of human being who enters the nerdiest of nerd competitions, the spelling bee.Īlong with chess tournaments, science fairs and mathletics, the spelling bee stands as a playing field for the brightest young minds of today.
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