Bobcat Goldthwait’s new film “World’s Greatest Dad” is a pitch black comedy. And it’s one that was met with raves at Sundance which lead us to believe — like many of the raves at Sundance — that it would be an average indie picture overrated by film festival intoxication. So it’s nice to see this clever, little sly bastard of a picture live up to the hype.
It’s delightfully twisted, subversive and wrong on oh-so-many perfect levels. And sure, we laughed a lot, but we also found ourselves so invested in the titular character that the emotional wallop surprised and disarmed in a very genuine way. It will make you hysterical, devastate you and bring you back again and it was nice to see comedy this fucked up have some tenderness and heart and soul; obviously just being gratuitously dark can be too easy.
Robin Williams gives his best understated performance in years (one of his best ever, really) as Lance Clayton, a frustrated unpublished novelist and single father trying to raise his porn-obsessed prick of a son in suburban Seattle. He teaches poetry at the local High School and dates the cute art teacher (TILF? “Teacher I’d Like to Fuck”) but can’t seem to get the ball rolling creatively, as the stacks of rejection letters swell his mailbox. A tsunami of emotions seem to rage underneath his melancholy smile and it’s wonderful to watch.
His son Kyle, played with ruthlessly delicious disgust by Daryl Sabara (a revelation), is a witless homophobe, pervert, chronic masturbator, and all around adolescent misanthrope. You just want to throttle him and at the same time he’s such an incredible source of comedy to the film; he’s every father’s worst nightmare. He is also most likely, much to Lance’s dismay, developmentally disabled. Kyle thinks his dad is a major loser and isn’t afraid to say it to his face, but he pretty much hates everyone else on the planet as well.
When a tragic event occurs in Clayton’s life, he is forced to confront his dreams in a way that he’s never imagined. The less you know the better, really, and though a lot of the basic plot “twist” was already revealed during Sundance, we’ll let you discover it for yourself.
As a stand-up comedian, Goldthwait was often brilliantly raw and crass, but never much of one for subtlety or emotional engagement. In “World’s Greatest Dad” he manages to bring that very raw, open sore worldview and give it a strong and deep emotional core. The humor here is dark, very dark, auto-erotic asphyxiation dark, but Williams performance is so grounded that it never tails off into the absurd. It is easy to forget what a thrilling presence he can be when he isn’t afraid to expose himself (literally) and take risks. Most importantly, it never forgets it is a comedy.
It is great to see Williams working in this relatively low-budget character driven domain once again. He hasn’t been this interesting since “One Hour Photo” years back. Goldthwait’s script is funny, original and deeply unsettling and his direction deft and professional; not to mention it’s very well-shot. With a few minor exceptions, the cast of mostly unknowns is solid and game. The only “flaw” per se are a few scenes of jarring editing that look like something a first-time filmmaker would do (crazy close-ups! smash cut! smash cut!), but overall, it’s totally forgivable.
Goldthwait, like all great comedians, proves that comedy and tragedy are linked like fraternal twins, they may look different on the outside, but, in reality, are simply just different shades of the same emotion.
“World’s Greatest Dad” is in limited release starting today and also available on VOD. [A-]
Trivia: Bobcat Goldthwait opened for Nirvana on some of their In Utero tour. Look for a cameo by bassist Krist Novoselic in the film. There’s great music throughout too including a running gag with Bruce Hornsby and his music (which there is a lot of!). We’ll write about that soon.
