World's Greatest Dad

World's Greatest Dad

World's Greatest Dad - Written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, starring Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara, and Alexie Gilmore - Rated R

Dark, messed up, and quite funny, just like Chigurh




I feel like a real critic; I was able to watch this movie before it comes out in theaters. Granted, I watched through Amazon On Demand and it doesn't look like it's going to get a very wide release, but I still feel special. I will say this, though, this movie deserves a wide audience because it is funny and it has dramatic elements that feel real...dark, but real.

I can't say exactly what makes World's Greatest Dad dark because that would truly spoil quite a shocking element a half hour or so in and I wouldn't want to deprive anyone of that. So I'm going to be very vague for the first part of this review, then I'll get into spoilers so I can say what I really felt about it.



I'm usually not a fan of Robin Williams. I've never found his normal comedic performances to be very funny. I like a few of his movies, don't get me wrong, but lately he's come off as more annoying than funny. That said, I have enjoyed his dark turns here and there (Death to Smoochy and Insomnia). This role requires both darkness and comedy.

Williams plays Lance Clayton, a failed author who has settled for a career teaching an extremely unpopular high school poetry class. To top it off, his son, Kyle (Sabara, aka the kid from Spy Kids), is an extreme pervert who seems to hate everyone, especially his dad. That's about as far as I can get into the plot without ruining it, so I'll just keep on with my mysterious review for now.

Without getting into it, this movie is hilarious at times. Williams always works best (in my opinion) when his vocabulary is free and he is able to play a role in which he says hateful things to a family member. My favorite interaction (from the trailer) involves a neighbor saying Kyle is like a zombie, to which Williams replies, "I wish. I like zombies." His delivery is perfect in that line and throughout. He truly conveys a defeated man who has given up playing the "happy" dad character. But he still tries at times, which makes him a sympathetic character. Kyle is so hateful and spoiled, but Williams still tries to win his love, all to no avail.

Adding to the misery is his secret girlfriend Claire (Gilmore), a fellow teacher who wants to keep out of the public eye, who starts to take a liking to the more popular creative writing teacher at school (she even goes out in public with him. The most heartbreaking moment occurs when Lance is eating lunch at the mall with his son. He looks at the escalator and sees Claire laughing it up with the other teacher. Then his son ditches him to go try out a new computer with his only friend rather than going to the movies with Lance. Kyle's friend asks Lance what he's going to do when they leave. He sighs and tells him that he'll probably just go to the movies by himself. At this point, my heart is going out to Williams. I've always felt bad for the people I see in the theater sitting by themselves. I start to wonder if they have no friends, and if they do, why wouldn't their friends take the time to check out a movie with them? It's depressing. That's probably not the case with all lone theatergoers, but it's certainly the case with Williams in this situation and it really struck me as realistic and sad. But that's all I can say about that without getting into spoilers. So, from here on out...SPOILERS.

Things change for Lance shortly after the low point at the movies. His son, who he had caught masturbating while choking himself earlier in the film, accidentally kills himself during the act. Lance, not wanting his son to be remembered for such an act (and probably not wanting the embarrassment for himself), gets ride of the evidence, hangs his son's corpse in the closet, and writes a touching suicide note. This turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to him (hence the darkness I mentioned earlier). The note gets published, along with "Kyle's" journal, and Lance is suddenly riding high. His class is now popular, publishers are talking to him, and all the kids at school, who used to shun and downright hate Kyle, embrace Kyle's legacy and talk about how close they were to him.

This is what makes this film really interesting. Not only is the death and subsequent good fortune quite an original shock, it also makes you genuinely question whether or not Lance has made an immoral choice. Students are telling him how their lives have changed, a school psychiatrist thinks the writing has saved other students, and things are going great for everyone in general. Is a lie evil when so much good comes of it? That is the question that the bulk of the movie deals with, and it's a thought provoking one at that. After watching the film, I still cannot say which way I lean regarding Lance's lie. I can tell you one thing, though: the movie isn't afraid of staying with the humor after this questionable choice is made, and I applaud Bobcat Goldthwait for that.



Goldthwait's recent directorial effort, Stay (or Sleeping Dogs Lie) was certainly edgy, but it didn't strike me as funny or dramatic. He seems to have found his mark with this one. Goldthwait's writing is great, and he's showing promise as a filmmaker as well. There are a few interesting shots here and there, and the man knows how to pick a good song to set a montage to. Sure, he might enjoy the montages a bit too much (I think there are about four of them), but they weren't really unnecessary, they just bordered on redundancy. Hopefully this film will keep him in business as a director, because I think he's capable of getting better.

World's Greatest Dad probably isn't for everyone (some may become disgusted early on and simply turn it off), but if you're into original films and you're willing to laugh when you should be shocked and disgusted, you should have a great time with this. I know I did.

Eric Harris - www.canneltoncritic.com

‘World’s Greatest Dad’ is Williams’ Best Movie in Years

Bobcat Goldthwait's career can be traced back to 1983, when he got his first big break appearing on Late Night
With David Letterman. He basically went on as a comic until retiring in 2005, having starred in Police Academy two, three and four in addition to appearing in random bad flicks

up to 1991 when he wrote, directed and starred in the cult classic Shakes the Clown. Stand-up may have launched his career; however Shakes brought him into the public eye. After that, he directed random episodes of such his-style shows as Crank Yankers, The Man Show, Chappelle's Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live! (which he did 267 episodes of). He also did Goldthwait Home Movies, a series of home videos that he shares commentary on with buddy Tom Kenny (who gets a cameo in World's Greatest Dad) and Kenny's wife Jill Talley. The movie may have been only eight minutes long, but it showed a more personal side of Goldthwait that reminded me of Judd Apatow when he did Funny People.

An essential move if Goldthwait wanted to be taken seriously as a writer/director, not just someone who spray-painted "Paramount Sucks" on Arsenio.

Robin Williams and Goldthwait have always been pals; having a brief partnership going under the aliases "Marty Fromage" and "Jack Cheese". Goldthwait used the name when he was in the movie Tapeheads, with Williams covering his name on the credits of Shakes where he shortly appeared as Mime Jerry. So it was cool to know some of the back-story to Dad prior to seeing it, so you can look for cameos like Kenny's and roles like Williams. Williams played it entertaining, sort of like a way better version of Nia Vardalos in I Hate Valentine's Day. He keeps a smile on his face at all times, hiding his true feelings about the world and people in general.

World's Greatest Dad opens on Williams' character Lance Clayton. He's a writer, but none of his work has ever been published (which really says something, since there's so much that was denied by publishers). Lance works at his son Kyle's (Daryl Sabara, a great asshole teen) high school as a poetry teacher. He's dating Claire (Alexie Gilmore), another teacher, but she doesn't want their relationship public. However she has no shame in showing affection to Mike (Henry Simmons) when an article of his is published in the New Yorker. "It's the first thing I ever sent in!" Lance's life sucks. His son hates him; his (secret) girlfriend might be cheating on him; his writing gets him nowhere; his poetry class might be cancelled, thus losing his job. The first half of Greatest Dad is disgusting brilliance. We clearly see his son choking himself whilst masturbating (all I can think of is David Carradine whenever I see this now, rest his soul) and from there it only gets worse. Goldthwait sticks his middle finger to the MPAA with World's Greatest Dad. The screenplay is as gross, unfunny, moronic; tasteless as it is genius, hilarious, original and true. An instant cult classic that in its own way is slightly moving.

The soundtrack that plays I have to say make the movie. It's mostly by Bruce Hornsby, who also receives a cameo in Dad. With the help of the pop/folk sound, Goldthwait directs World's Greatest Dad somewhat like one long, giant music video. The world's best long giant music video! If you thought that Brüno was dirty, wait until you see this. In The Loop is the greatest comedy of the year by far, however I'm not counting out Dad at all. One of the funniest comedies in the recent decade. Pure poetry. Dirty poetry, but poetry still.

Five out of five stars.

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-Nick

Worlds Greatest Dad - ***

Again, another movie I heard a lot of good stuff about but wasn't sure what to expect.  The movie centers around Robin Williams and his relationship with his son, who is a sex addict of sorts and all he can think about is sex and pleasuring himself.  His son tried to enhance his self pleasure by choking himself which leads to his untimely death.


Robin Williams finds his son in this state, and after a very well acted emotional scene, he decides to rearrange his son and the room so it looks like a suicide and not the actual death he had.  Williams even goes as far as to write a fake suicide letter for his son.  Inevitably, the suicide letter goes public and his son's classmates become inspired by this kid that they never really cared about before.  This then leads to Robin Williams becoming famous (which is what he's always wanted as he aspired to be a writer).  The only caveat to his fame is if he can keep the secret that the words his son wrote that were so inspirational were actually his. 

This is what fuels the movie and leads to the very poignant message which is that you need to find what makes you happy and the people that make you happy and surround yourself with them.  People have flaws but the ones who don't appear to have any, usually have the most and the people who seem to have the most glaring flaws usually have the best traits to balance them out and ultimately, all you need are good people around you who appreciate you for you and you can be happy.

World's Greatest Dad

Heard a lot about this movie earlier this year and I finally found it in a pirated shop. Uhh... I'm not sure how to go about explaining this movie to you guys.. OK let's give it a try.



So the movie is about Lance Clayton, a failed writer and teacher in his late 40's who's son, Kyle is the biggest unappreciative asshole son of a bitch there ever was. Lance's girlfriend dates him on her own convenience and.. pretty much his life sucks. But when his son accidentally dies while masturbating, Lance makes it look like a suicide to protect him and his family from shame and fabricates a suicide note. Little did he know, the suicide note would strike a chord with everyone in his school. Soon, a cult in Kyle's honor emerges with people claiming they liked Kyle and Lance all along. With the success of the suicide note, Lance begins writing a journal in his son's name to continue the beneficial facade.



World's Greatest Dad explores how fake people can be. Especially when there's some new trend and people jump on the bandwagon just so they are in the majority. I was actually kinda disturbed watching how far these teens would go to feel included. And we're all victims of this. How many times has a celebrity died and suddenly, a million people started saying how much hey loved him/her, i.e all those fake Micheal Jackson lovers.



Robin Williams gives an awesome performance of the father who is tortured with the loss of a son who never cared about him and his guilt of reaping benefits he always wanted from is son's death. I really wanted to say he was funny in the movie (cause he was) but his character is really really messed up to the point where it's uncomfortable to even watch him. I just kept thinking, "How can this guy sleep at night, seriously".



And Daryl Sabara who plays is son.. as much as I wanted to give the guy a big slap, I gotta say the dude's come a long way from Spy Kids. His character has gotta be the douche-iest character I've seen all year and I was incredibly entertained watching him bask in all his ass-holiness.



 The subject matter was really interesting and I wished they played around with it some more instead of going about the usual Robin William jokes. The story did drag a bit too long and added a lot of unnecessary cheap laughs to what was suppose to be a very deep controversial social statement.



Overall, great acting by Robin Williams, interesting concept, poor execution.

RATING: 6/10

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NicholasC