A possible return to form for Robin Williams, or a darkly un-funny comedy? Brought to you by the guy with the daft voice from the Police Academy films.
World’s Greatest Dad
“I like looking at vaginas.”
Plot-in-a-nutshell: Kyle’s a dick with a sex fixation, Lance is his father who tries his best to deal with it… and then overcompensates when things take a turn for the worst letting his life spiral out of control.
If you like your comedy black to the point where it exudes no light whatsoever, this is it. You could shove World’s Greatest Dad into a capsule, fire it into space and it would suck a black hole up. It’s that black.
Written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait (who also makes a small cameo), this is quite a weird film. It begins with Lance (Williams) walking in on his son, Kyle (Daryl Sabara), doing something he’d rather wish he’d not seen. This sets the film up to be some kind of American Pie derivative, but it couldn’t be further from it.
Kyle is a ******. Erm, in more ways that one. He takes being a teenager to the extremes. Abusive, disrespectful, ignorant, rude – he’s the sort of kid nobody wants to end up with. In the UK we’d call him a chav. Lance realises what he’s stuck with and Williams plays the part of the put-upon father very well indeed.
To make Kyle’s life even worse, his father teaches in the school he attends. Lance’s English poetry class is flagging as students flock for the creative writing class run by charismatic Mr Lane (Henry Simmons), who also has an eye on Lance’s girlfriend, fellow teacher Claire (Alexie Gilmore). Oh, and Lance is also a failed author with five unpublished novels.
Without giving away the even that changes everything… an even happens that changes everything. All of a sudden, Lance is the centre of attention and his popularity is on the rise. The thing is, he gets this boost in popularity courtesy of a lie. The thing is, it wasn’t a bad lie. Or are all lies bad?
This is a well-crafted film with some clever segues between parts, superb acting and scenes you really shouldn’t laugh at but can’t help yourself. Williams is simply superb and the supporting cast aren’t half bad either.
I didn’t “get” Cyrus that I watched last week, but I’d put this into the same genre and much preferred it. As ever, films come down to taste and mine likes Robin Williams more than John C. Reilly.
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- World’s Greatest Dad (15) (independent.co.uk)
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