Bad Words

Bad Words (2013) is a pitch-black comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Guy Trilby, a bitter forty-year-old, exploits a loophole in the rulebook to barge into a kids' national spelling bee, a grown man elbowing past eight-year-olds. His reason has nothing to do with loving words.

Jason Bateman plays Trilby and also makes his directing debut here. Guy insults the children, rattles their parents and dismantles the tournament from the inside, dragging along a pushy reporter named Jenny (Kathryn Hahn) who's footing the bill for the stunt. Then a relentlessly cheerful ten-year-old rival, Chaitanya (Rohan Chand), latches onto him, and the whole cynical scheme starts to wobble.

The humor is crude and deliberately offensive, so if mean-spirited jokes turn you off, skip it. But Bateman threads the needle between nastiness and a surprising streak of tenderness, and the late reveal of Guy's motive actually lands. Allison Janney and Philip Baker Hall round out the cast. Stream Bad Words (2013) online on iFILM.