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Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait is the creative force behind World's Greatest Dad, a prickly and often squirm-worthy black comedy from 2009 and the late Robin Williams is the force in front of it.
Williams plays Lance Clayton, a sullen, unpublished writer who teaches a poetry class that no one is interested in taking at the same school his 15 year old son, Kyle, attends. Kyle is an obnoxious, sex-obsessed, foul-mouthed jerk who treats his father like dirt. When Kyle suddenly dies under what would be considered very embarrassing circumstances, Lance decides to protect Kyle and himself by hanging Kyle's body in the closet and writing an elaborate suicide note, which somehow hits social media, turning Kyle into a tortured martyr, profoundly affecting the lives of other students who didn't give him the time of day when he was alive. Not to mention promoting Lance to a level of celebrity that he never dreamed of.
Goldthwait has crafted a sizzling and merciless black comedy here that has a definite Woody Allen sensibility to it...characters who are basically nice people drawn into questionable behavior by circumstance and getting away with it a lot longer than they should. Goldwaithwait's story cleverly spends the first third of the film setting up the Kyle character as the most vile and reprehensible creature on earth so that when he dies, we don't really feel the sympathy that the death of a character should arise, but his father's handling of the death ends up being what imbues sympathy for Kyle.
We know there are only a handful of ways this can play out. Kyle's only friend, Andrew, seems to know the truth from the beginning and we keep waiting for him to bust Lance and then we see a fellow teacher looking at Kyle's autopsy online and we think this might be Lance's downfall. Goldthwait's story eventually reveals there's only one justifiable way for this play out, though we're not sure until the final reel if it's going to happen.
Goldwaithwait's direction is striking, with some interesting camera work that create some rich cinematic imagery. Robin William's quietly brilliant performance as Lance should be studied by acting students and he gets solid support from Geoff Pierson as the Principal, Daryl Sabara as Kyle, and Evan Martin as Andrew. There's also a cameo by musician Bruce Hornesby, who contributes to the quirky song score that frames the story, as well as the story itself. This little sleeper caught me by surprise and is a must for Robin Williams fans.
Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait is the creative force behind World's Greatest Dad, a prickly and often squirm-worthy black comedy from 2009 and the late Robin Williams is the force in front of it.
Williams plays Lance Clayton, a sullen, unpublished writer who teaches a poetry class that no one is interested in taking at the same school his 15 year old son, Kyle, attends. Kyle is an obnoxious, sex-obsessed, foul-mouthed jerk who treats his father like dirt. When Kyle suddenly dies under what would be considered very embarrassing circumstances, Lance decides to protect Kyle and himself by hanging Kyle's body in the closet and writing an elaborate suicide note, which somehow hits social media, turning Kyle into a tortured martyr, profoundly affecting the lives of other students who didn't give him the time of day when he was alive. Not to mention promoting Lance to a level of celebrity that he never dreamed of.
Goldthwait has crafted a sizzling and merciless black comedy here that has a definite Woody Allen sensibility to it...characters who are basically nice people drawn into questionable behavior by circumstance and getting away with it a lot longer than they should. Goldwaithwait's story cleverly spends the first third of the film setting up the Kyle character as the most vile and reprehensible creature on earth so that when he dies, we don't really feel the sympathy that the death of a character should arise, but his father's handling of the death ends up being what imbues sympathy for Kyle.
We know there are only a handful of ways this can play out. Kyle's only friend, Andrew, seems to know the truth from the beginning and we keep waiting for him to bust Lance and then we see a fellow teacher looking at Kyle's autopsy online and we think this might be Lance's downfall. Goldthwait's story eventually reveals there's only one justifiable way for this play out, though we're not sure until the final reel if it's going to happen.
Goldwaithwait's direction is striking, with some interesting camera work that create some rich cinematic imagery. Robin William's quietly brilliant performance as Lance should be studied by acting students and he gets solid support from Geoff Pierson as the Principal, Daryl Sabara as Kyle, and Evan Martin as Andrew. There's also a cameo by musician Bruce Hornesby, who contributes to the quirky song score that frames the story, as well as the story itself. This little sleeper caught me by surprise and is a must for Robin Williams fans.