Bad Words (film)

Bad Words is a 2013 American black comedy film directed by Jason Bateman and written by Andrew Dodge. Marking Batemans directorial debut, the film stars Bateman as a middleaged eighth grade dropout who enters the National Golden Quill Spelling Bee through a loophole. It also stars Kathryn Hahn, Rohan Chand, Ben Falcone, Philip Baker Hall, and Allison Janney.

Fortyyearold Guy Trilby discovers a loophole in the Golden Quill Spelling Bee which stipulates that participants must have not graduated from the eighth grade, allowing him to enter since he dropped out of middle school. He attends and wins a regional spelling bee, and progresses to the national competition after confrontations with both the parents of children and the spelling bee hosts. He is accompanied by Jenny Widgeon, a relatively unknown journalist hoping to make a story out of his participation in the bee. On the flight to the national spelling bee, Guy meets Chaitanya Chopra, a 10yearold entrant in the bee who persistently attempts to befriend Guy. Upon his arrival in Los Angeles, Guy meets the director of the spelling bee, Dr. Bernice Deagan, who expresses anger at his participation in the bee and places him and his reporter in a cheap hotel. Guy learns that Chaitanya is staying in the same hotel, and takes him out one night to expose Chaitanya to the wilder side of life stealing food, drinking, and briefly hiring a prostitute.In the bee, Guy actively tries to distract and disconcert his fellow competitors, at one point insinuating that he was sleeping with another contestants mother. Despite Dr. Deagans tampering with the word list to give Guy the most difficult words, he spells long, complicated words with relative ease, impressing and angering both parents and staff at the spelling bee, including the events founder, Dr. William Bowman. However, the parents petition for his disqualification and the resignation of Deagan. While researching Guys background, Jenny discovers that Bowman is Guys father. She reveals this to him and he admits that his prime motivation for entering the bee was to embarrass his father in revenge for abandoning him and his mother when he was a child. Soon before the final stage of the bee, Guy overhears Chaitanya and his father discussing his strategy to win, which is to befriend Guy so that he will allow Chaitanya to win out of

Source: Wikipedia