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Web Exclusive Review: World's Greatest Dad

Alternative Press - Rachel Lux on 8/31/09 @ 1:03 PM - altpress.com

COMEDY
WORLD'S GREATEST DAD (Magnolia Pictures)
STARS > Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara, Alexie Gilmore, Geoff Pierson, Henry Simmons, Evan Martin
DIRECTOR > Bobcat Goldthwait
RATING > [5/5]
OPENS > Now playing

Despite its title, World's Greatest Dad is not a family comedy about the wacky adventures of a single dad struggling to raise a house full of misfits and maladroits. It's not a working-mom/stay-at-home-dad setup like in Mr. Mom. And Robin Williams does not appear in drag a la Mrs. Doubtfire-or worse, in a fat suit like Martin Lawrence in Big Momma's House. There is no slapstick; there are no pratfalls, no forced feel-good moments. There is nothing goofy or faux-heartwarming about this movie. Instead, writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait has created one of the funniest, darkest, sharpest satires of the last decade. To repeat: Bobcat Goldthwait, the squeaky, bug-eyed weirdo of Police Academy and Shakes The Clown fame, has made a film that is not only hilarious but also brilliant and incisive. (Full disclosure: I'm probably one of the few active Goldthwait fans, and I still can't believe what he's accomplished here.)

Williams plays Lance Clayton, a failed novelist and earnest pot smoker who ekes out a living teaching poetry at the same Seattle-area high school where his son Kyle (Sabara) is generally loathed by just about everyone. Lance's own relationship with his bratty, insolent, foul-mouthed son is strained at best. When Kyle accidentally kills himself while masturbating-autoerotic asphyxiation-style, in the collapsed vein of INXS vocalist Michael Hutchence and, most recently, Kill Bill star David Carradine-Lance hastily composes a touching suicide note to avoid embarrassment. The fake letter is then published in the school newspaper, leading teachers (Gilmore, Simmons), students and even the surly principal (Pierson) to reevaluate their opinions of the deceased young man. Seeing an opportunity to finally kick-start his writing career, Lance then pens a fake diary that he attributes to his dead son. The journal is an utter success; dearest Kyle, the newly beloved but totally dead former bane of everyone's existence is suddenly a misunderstood folk hero of epic proportions.

Goldthwait's satiric treatment of a duly sensitive subject-not suicide, per se, but the irrational lionization of the dead-cuts to the marrow of American culture, both popular and political. Just five years ago, Ronald Reagan, a senile ex-movie star and doddering ex-president who exacerbated the Cold War while illegally funneling arms into Iran; a man whose policies became the political impetus for hardcore punk (Black Flag, D.R.I., et al.), was summarily hailed as one of the greatest presidents of all time upon his death. Heath Ledger, an unmistakably talented actor who died suddenly last year at the age of 28, was awarded an Oscar for an admirable but not fantastic turn as The Joker in The Dark Knight. One wonders if he would have received the award were he still alive. It's no coincidence that World's Greatest Dad is set in Seattle: Without naming the name that has become synonymous with both the city and the act of suicide, let's just say that it's not a coincidence that former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic makes a poignant and all-too-appropriate cameo.

It's unclear what kind of a push Magnolia Pictures is giving World's Greatest Dad, but it'd be a shame if this movie managed to fly under the radar somehow. For those who are of the opinion that Goldthwait's (or even Williams') glory days have come and gone, the film stands as hilarious, unmitigated proof of the pair's ongoing relevance and commitment to daring comedy. A Judd Apatow-style laugh-fest, World's Greatest Dad is not. But it is thoughtful, relevant and often pants-pissingly funny in ways that are rarely seen at the movies these days. It also might be the best film we've seen this year. J. Bennett

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