Crudeness meets Bateman

‘Bad Words’ review

By Steven Cayer, Senior Columnist

3/5

With a movie called Bad Words, you know what you’re in for. Being Jason Bateman’s movie directorial debut, I had high hopes for this film—they were probably a little higher than they should have been.

The film tells the story of Guy Trilby (played by Bateman), who is as despicable as they come, full of bad words and arrogance. Since he never passed the eighth grade, he goes from town to town competing in local children’s spelling bees, boosting his own ego in the process.

He is joined by Jenny Widgeon (Kathryn Hahn), a small-time reporter who’s looking for an interesting story. Later, he meets a young contestant who consistently tries to befriend him despite Trilby’s efforts to avoid making friends.

At first, the humour made me uncomfortable because I couldn’t believe how creatively crude it was. But as the movie went on, it slowly developed into a very funny, even heart-warming tale of redemption. It was one of Bateman’s finest performances, which I admire. For his first movie, he did a fine job.

If you can get past the crude humour, you’ll find something beautiful in Bad Words.