Bobcat Goldthwait has had one of the more fascinating career reinventions in Hollywood. Originally known for his wild, anarchic stand-up and memorably chaotic appearances in Police Academy and Scrooged, Goldthwait has since made a name for himself (and what a name!) as a fiercely original filmmaker. With cult classics like Sleeping Dogs Lie, Shakes the Clown, and the particularly underrated World’s Greatest Dad starring Robin Williams, he’s carved out a niche as one of indie cinema’s most provocative voices.

God Bless America, available to watch now on StudioCanal Presents, is one of Goldthwait’s most vivid, colourful films – a violent, blackly comic satire that skewers American pop culture and societal decay with biting precision. Originally released in 2011, the film follows Frank (Joel Murray), a divorced, unemployed and perhaps terminally ill man who is increasingly disillusioned with the relentless noise of modern life. With nothing left to live for, he embarks on a killing spree, taking aim at the rudest people in society, from reality TV stars to chatty cinema audiences. Along the way he finds a kindred spirit in the form of Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), a teenage runaway with murderous impulses of her own.

With echoes of Network, Falling Down and even Serial Mom, Goldthwait targets the worst elements of American society and cultural rot. It’s a film that veers between genuine laugh out loud comedy, horror, and moments of surprising tenderness.

Now, over a decade later, God Bless America feels startlingly relevant. With its themes of cultural frustration, the insatiable hunger for fame, and the search for human connection amid the chaos, the film hits harder than ever. To celebrate its anniversary, I chatted to Goldthwait to discuss the film’s enduring legacy, how it would (or wouldn’t) be made today, and the power of angry Christmas presents, some teenage angst, and even The Kinks.

Nick: Great to meet you, I’m a fan – I have to start by telling you, God Bless America is one of my Dad’s favourite films.

Bobcat: Oh really? What’s wrong with your Dad!? *laughs*

I don’t know! He’s generally quite misanthropic, I think!

I guess that it is the angry Dad movie, but you’d have to be slightly progressive too

Watching the film he’s “I like the way this guy thinks”

“I like Frank! He seems normal!”

So, it’s 14 years since God Bless America was released – America’s Got Talent is still on, people are still filming in cinemas, and Kim Kardashian remains unmurdered – how do you feel about it looking back?

Yeah, you know I truly made it… because I was wondering where we were gonna go as a country, but I didn’t think it would get this dark, you know? I didn’t think we would be rounding up people and sending them to prisons in other countries without trials. It’s got really crazy. I have a friend who was entering the country, and they asked her, cause she’s a comic, if she did any material about the administration, which is so scary. Coming back, I was truly so worried that they were going to ask me that because there’s no way I wouldn’t have said “No! I do bits about your Mom!”

Yeah, it’s a scary time right now…

Even though the company that financed it – they’re friends of mine and they really support me and believe in me, but I honestly don’t know if we would have made that movie right now.

I was thinking about this, and in terms of the politics in America at the time, the ‘Tea Party’ were the most out there…

Yeah, and the Tea Party really was the fuse for all this. They were really appealing to the basest, lowest impulses in folks, and they were out there, they weren’t in the shadows, and without them I don’t think we would be in the position that we are. Yeah, I don’t know, it just got dark. I always say [God Bless America) is a violent film about kindness. I could have made it an anti-hero movie, where at the end they become celebrities – I mean it is that but maybe where they don’t die – Spoiler alert! – but you know, kind of like like a Taxi Driver ending where in a twisted way he gets where he wants.

Or maybe like the Black Mirror episode (Fifteen Million Merits – pictured above), where the guy goes on the talent show to hold the producers ransom, but he gets paid to keep coming back on to do this anti-consumer rant.

Oh that’s great! To do the speech like Network.

Yes, doing a Peter Finch every week!

I don’t know if I saw that one, but you know, I did an anthology series here a few years ago, and I had pitched it years before and they wouldn’t put it on, and I was doing an interview and someone asked “Well, what do you think changed?” and I said “Well, Black Mirror was a success, that what’s changed – I owe those guys a fruit basket” then when my show premiered, they sent me a fruit basket – and I’m like, this is like an episode from your show!

It definitely seems like anthology shows are all the rage now

It’s fascinating – it’s funny because if I watch a series now – not an anthology show – and it doesn’t have a seasonal arc, it doesn’t feel as interesting to me as a show that just has a bunch of standalone episodes. Sometimes I really enjoy a show but boy, if they had an arc it would be more rewarding.

It’s the genius of a lot of these shows that the characters actually change and grow. That’s why I never had a sitcom idea, because, you know, every week Tim Allen does the same dumb shit, he never grows!

It’s interesting that you called God Bless America “A violent film about kindness”. As that’s what struck me; yes, they are killing people, but the characters don’t have a political axe to grind, they just want people to be polite.

Yeah, well that’s really what Frank wants – and you know, Roxy’s more, just a teenager. You know, I grew up with Tom Kenny [ED: Hugely talented American voice actor and comedian], I’ve known him since I was six years old and we’re still good buddies. We found some recordings of us when we were teenagers, and we were both dying laughing like, “What the fuck were we so angry about?” you know what I mean, we were in private school, we didn’t have really a worry, but we had all this angst!

[In GBA].. Frank is frustrated with the way things are, and I liked the idea of someone else that’s angry but angry for a completely different reason. Frank is mad because things aren’t going right, and she’s just angry! I also liked the dynamic that there was no sexual tension between the two of them.

Yeah they have the platonic spree killers relationship. And with the references to Juno, you’re pre-empting any accusation of it being too cutesy, yet the final line is genuinely sweet, so you have your cake and eat it...

It is a little bit, but I kinda feel like when he says that to her he’s not being lechy, he’s saying it like how a Dad would say it.

It’s a bit disarming after all the violence, to end on a genuine sweet note.

It is funny, the most tender, and probably one of the few things that aren’t too exaggerated or cartoony, the line delivery could be in a more serious story, but then they unleash the most mayhem of the whole film.

You know it’s funny, before this film came out we had people online going “I liked this film better when it was called Super!” you know, *that* joke. And I hadn’t seen Super yet, then I did watch it, but the weird thing is I think it’s Roxie too! [It’s actually Libby] And Frank! [it is Frank though] I think if I was going to steal a film I would change the names!

It’s also Elliot Page, so all the Juno references!

Yeah, yeah I know! But the funny thing is I believe that’s what caused me and James Gunn to become friends, because of that, so that really backfired! You guys thought you were gonna start a beef, and now James and I are buddies!

I think they’re distinct films, with different messages and vibes

Yeah, it’s interesting because Super does have that ending, which I think in a weird way is more rewarding for people. My movie ends, you are probably rooting for the main characters at the beginning but at some point you start to see yourself as one of the victims – the idea was that hopefully you don’t agree with these two, but I think some people just wanted to see them kill the same people they didn’t like, but they are killing people!

I was thinking about the popularity of zombie movies when I wrote it, and I thought, people like zombie films because they get to kill people. That’s the real reason. People don’t want to kill corpses! They may not know it but deep down they want to kill their fellows. So I thought why don’t I do a zombie movie because everyone is acting like zombies, but just leave out the part where they pass away.

Cut out the middle man…

Yeah, just get right to it!

I’ve seen you say in a previous interview [with AV Club] that you wrote the film as a Christmas present for your then wife?

Yeah I did. It’s cause I’m cheap! No, no it was a Christmas present for her.

I also read another interview [here] where you said that “relationships aren’t formed by the things that you love but by the things you hate” – and I was wondering if the two things are linked. There’s a scene I love, where the two of them are listing the people they are going to kill…

You know, I never put it together until you brought that up, but that is an actual bonding scene. I never realised that, but that was probably the same as the bonding between my wife and I.

We probably disliked about 90% of the same things. Also, she is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met so there are probably a line or two that are hers, that I nicked from her. She’s really funny.

I wanted to ask about the soundtrack – you’ve obviously got Alice Cooper, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Kinks. I wanted to ask about Schoolboys In Disgrace? [This is Goldthwait’s delayed film based on The Kinks album from 1975]

Yeah I don’t know – maybe I’ll get back on that cause I would have some really good traction, and I’d have to go back to the States, but now if I’m in Ireland and the UK it would be good to get that going again. But you know… I would change it now because it’s too hack, and this was that long ago that the villain was a real estate developer – it was more than loosely based on a Trump-like person. Now I wouldn’t do that because it’s just too hack – it would definitely need a good sized rewrite but [maybe] I’ll get that back on track.

It was interesting to get that song from Ray (Davies), because most people don’t want to see the scenes. They either want to haggle over money or just say ‘yes or no’ immediately but I think he might be the only person who has ever asked to see the scene, so I sent him the scene.

Joel (Murray) is walking down Hollywood Boulevard – which was great because that was a totally stolen shot, it was like 3 o’clock in the morning. So Ray said, “What happens next? I’m kinda concerned” and I go, “Well that’s a machine gun he’s carrying  – he goes in and shoots a guy loosely based on a famous TV judge five times in the chest” and it’s the shortest exchange I’ve had with Ray, he just wrote back “I’m in!”

Perfect!

I don’t know what it is about The Kinks’ songwriting, most of the songs are full stories… that’s why I think I was drawn to them so much as a kid.

One thing I noticed when watching, at the start, is Frank flicking through the channels on his TV, and now it’s the same, but everyone is carrying it round with them...

He’d have been watching it on his phone today rather than on the TV. Although I couldn’t have justified him being on TikTok I think, but there is something about how TikTok is even faster.

Even just Reels, it goes by and you don’t even need the remote to change the channel!

It’s crazy – there are a few things in the montage that kinda feel like something you can find on Instagram or Whatsapp, like when the guy falls off the soda machine and lands on his face. He’s on the show Numb Nuts!

I love all those bits. It feels slightly heightened, yet it’s plausible. It’s not exaggerated to the point of “this is a comedy” I feel like I’ve seen similar stuff to that on Instagram, where someone faceplants and just doesn’t move

God yeah, that’s the weird thing, because there are no gate keepers! So something terrible happens… and then it just cuts out. There’s a good chance that this person has serious injuries, but we got rid of that part, the unpleasant part, we just cut to the fun part.

So, I first saw God Bless America when it came out and re-watched recently, and it really stands up. I was also brought up on the Police Academy films, so it’s been amazing to meet you...

Oh wow. Again, your Dad sounds like a horrible Father *laughs*

God Bless America is available to stream on StudioCanal Presents now: https://amzn.to/43fWNU5