‘The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone…’
Bobcat Goldthwait has had three careers. He’s been a celebrated stand-up noted for his dark humour, an actor best known for being fairly annoying in the Police Academy movies and most pertinently for this review a director of films that combine comedy with social commentary. Goldthwait wrote and directed God Bless America – one of the most underrated and underseen films of the 2000s. Two years before that cinematic landmark, Goldthwait wrote and directed a movie with his longtime friend Robin Williams…
Lance Clayton (Williams) is a sad sack teacher who despite being a genuinely sweet guy is hated by his dickhead teenage son and barely tolerated by everyone else. Despite Lance’s best efforts to connect with his son Kyle (Darayl Sabara), these efforts are thwarted at every turn. When Kyle accidentally kills himself via auto asphyxiation, Lance sniffs an opportunity to cover up the death and pass off his own rejected writing as his son’s dying words.
As with many of Goldthwait’s movies, many will read the synopsis and expect a wilfully obscure film that is difficult to enjoy and even more difficult to explain. In reality, this is a character study of a desperate man. Sure, there is humour throughout, pitch black, obsidian humour but humour nevertheless, but Goldthwait provides a canvas for Williams to create a masterpiece. It’s one of the late actor’s best performances encompassing all of his best traits as an actor: humility, sadness but always with a glint in his eye.
World’s Greatest Dad is strange and offputting, particularly in the first act, but eventually, it evolves into something really worthwhile. It also has one of those incredible soundtracks where every song is perfect and memorable despite being obscure. Any film that features a silent cameo from Nirvana bassist Krist Novaselic is alright by me.
