As I noted on Twitter, standing in line to see a Bobcat Goldthwait movie today says something very different about you than standing in line to see a Bobcat Goldthwait movie in the 1980s. Goldthwait is way better behind the camera than he is in front of it. His best movie, Sleeping Dogs Lie, is at once a rude, raunchy sex comedy about a woman who gave a blowjob to a dog in college and a quiet character study exploring why you shouldn't be completely honest in relationships. It's very much the work of a writer/director, and it doesn't feel quite like any other movie.

Goldthwait's new movie, God Bless America, is already available on pay-per-view and through various online rental services, but seeing it as a midnight movie at the Egyptian as part of SIFF was the perfect viewing experience for the film. The premise is Idiocracy meets Falling Down: A man named Frank gets fed up with how stupid the world has become. With a teenage girl as his improbable sidekick, he decides to do something about it, by killing idiotic reality-show "celebrities" and people who talk in movie theaters. Occasionally, Frank would go off on a rant about civility and shame and dignity, and the packed-out Egyptian audience would loudly applaud those monologues with such obvious excitement that the violent revenge sprees that followed the applause made the whole house feel complicit in Frank's crimes. (It helps with Seattle audiences that Frank is the rare left-leaning movie killer—targets of his rage include a Fox News riff and teabaggers.)

This isn't Goldthwait's best movie. It stalls out in the middle and doesn't have much to do once it establishes its premise. But it's a lot of fun—a road-trip movie, a Bonnie and Clyde riff, and a plea for civility disguised as a serial killer flick. In your living room, I expect the flaws would be magnified. In a theater full of people who sympathize with Frank's schlubby outrage, it's a wonderful treat. God Bless America is playing one more time at SIFF, this time at SIFF Cinema at the Uptown at 9:30 tonight. Rumor has it, it'll be back at the Uptown next month, just in time for the 4th of July.