On DVD: World’s Greatest Dad

Lance Clayton’s (Wiiliams) son Kyle (Sabara) is a perverted and disrespectful jackass. He’s obsessed with pornography, despises music and movies entirely, is flunking his classes and most of all, he hates his dad. Lance is a failed writer trying to keep his job as a high school poetry teacher and his co-worker girlfriend. But all that is about to change after a bizarre accident.

Written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, director of numerous comedy shows such as “The Man Show” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “World’s Greatest Dad” is an unlikely black comedy that will surely twist anyone’s perception about what it means to be a genuine person.

Williams give one of his best leading performances in maybe as much as the last ten years. He pumps Lance full of his trademark charismatic wit, but he’s far from the character trying to be funny. The emotions of a man whose life is on the brink of failure going through a change as tumultuous as the one he endures is are varied and I think Williams plays them all nicely.

The pride of “World’s Greatest Dad” is the script. Goldthwait weaves a story that stretches our belief a little much but with great intention. Once you get over the hump and understand why many of its characters are more like caricatures, it’s easier to imagine this bizarre scenario is real. Goldthwait laces this film with so much rich irony that his direction alone elicits laughter. The Obama-like photo of Kyle that appears on numerous occasions represents so much that just having it in frame it is part of the humor and even the poignancy.

Non-traditional and a bit cliché at points, “World’s Greatest Dad” is not perfect, but the undertones and intention behind the events of the film is where it makes its statement. It poses a moral dilemma to the audience that it resolves in a way that most people wouldn’t consider as resolution, but it definitely works for this quirky dark film.

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4/5 Stars

World’s Greatest Dad
Written and Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait
Starring: Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara, Alexie Gilmore