As an actor, Jason Bateman has always exuded a charming sense of sarcasm that makes the characters he plays likable even when they probably shouldn’t be. He originally made a name for himself as a smartass child and adolescent in the likes of Silver Spoons, The Hogan Family and Teen Wolf Too. More recently, his wit has endeared him to a younger generation in films like Juno and Extract and television’s Arrested Development. Now Bateman makes his directorial debut with Bad Words, a film that sees him return to his child acting roots. Well, sort of.

Bateman stars as Guy Trilby, a 40-year-old deadbeat who, to the dismay of preteens and parents across the country, enters and excels in The Golden Quill, a spelling bee competition intended for 8th graders. With the help of aspiring reporter Jenny Widgeon (Kathryn Hahn), Guy finds a semantics error in the spelling bee’s rules that allows him to remain in the competition.

Refusing to reveal his motivations (even to Jenny, despite their awkwardly intimate relationship), Guy meets opposition in the form of Golden Quill head honchos Dr. Bernice Deagan (Allison Janney) and Dr. Bowman (Philip Baker Hall). Guy, however, is always one step ahead of any obstacle thrown in his path. That is until he meets fellow linguistic competitor Chaitanya Chopra (Rohan Chand), who seems to be the only person unfazed by Guy’s foul mouth and bad attitude. So much so that the two become unlikely pals, with Guy indulging Chaitanya in treats such as ice cream, booze and hiring a prostitute to give Chaitanya his first peek at boobs.

It’s all disgustingly inappropriate, which is exactly what makes it so funny. Guy’s brash behavior is hilarious thanks to Bateman’s wit and dry delivery, but you’d probably want to physically harm this guy if you met him in person. And Chaitanya’s naive optimism softens Guy up enough to make him a little easier to like. As the two spell their way closer to victory, their newfound friendship begins to suffer under the possibility of Guy and Chaitanya being the final contestants. Guy pulls pranks on other rivals, such as squirting a packet of ketchup onto the chair of one female competitor, leaving her mortified at the thought of having her first period in front of an audience. Not that he needs help eliminating his competition; he just finds a twisted enjoyment in embarrassing others. But when he stoops to pulling similar stunts with Chaitanya, it takes their friendly rivalry to sadistically silly new levels.

By the time Guy reaches the final stages of his plan, Chaitanya figures out a way to thwart it, which becomes its own comedy of errors. But that doesn’t stop Guy from achieving his goal of embarrassing The Golden Quill and its hosts on national TV. And when his motivations are finally spelled out, the whole stunt is somehow understandable. Given Bateman’s propensity for portraying endearingly quirky characters in absurd situations, Bad Words is just what one should expect from his first foray into directing.

www.focusfeatures.com/bad_words