William Bibbiani Reviews World’s Greatest Dad!

In World’s Greatest Dad, the latest comedy from writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait, Robin Williams stars as a hapless father – and artist! – who ultimately uses some manner of deception to earn the love and respect of his peers, progeny and romantic interest. The fact that this plotline could also apply to Mrs. Doubtfire, The Birdcage, and just about any other “family” movie starring a comedian aged 40 or older makes it all the more jarring to actually recognize World’s Greatest Dad for what it is: one of the best films of the year, one of the finest comedies of the decade, and, probably, the best performance of Robin Williams’ career.

You could be forgiven for thinking World’s Greatest Dad was yet another innocuous comedy for all ages (Hollywood code for “it contains poo jokes”) given its oppressively uninteresting title, big friendly poster and the fact that it stars, well, Robin Williams. In my interview with writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait, whose previous film Sleeping Dogs Lie told the story of a girl who destroys her relationship by telling her boyfriend that she once fellated a dog, he admitted that the title was intended to be “snarky,” and that he secretly hopes that “some families show up” to be shocked and offended by the underhanded marketing choices. Indeed, few films achieve World’s Greatest Dad’s level of the profane, from watching Daryl Sabara, the lovable lead of the Spy Kids franchise, strangling himself while masturbating in the movie’s first few minutes to a beautifully awkward sex scene between Robin Williams and Alexie Gilmore, the cinematic equivalent of walking in on your parents while they’re getting “experimental.”

But as easy, and fun, as it is to catalogue the film’s many achievements in offensiveness it unfortunately distracts from what is a very human story, at turns as charming as Napoleon Dynamite and as smart as Adaptation. Robin Williams plays Lance Clayton, a single father with a drawer full of unpublished novels who over the course of the first half of the film redefines the expression “that poor bastard.” His son Kyle (Daryl Sabara) is a misanthropic and possibly just plain stupid teenager who appears to have developed sexual perversions the way most of his peers have developed pubic hair. His girlfriend and co-worker Claire (Alexie Gilmore) hovers somewhere in the limbo between perfectly adorable and manipulative bitch. And when his rival co-worker Mike (Henry Simmons) publishes a short story in the New Yorker, Mike’s first submission no less, the only way Lance can preserve his own ego is to pretend that it’s not a national magazine, only to have his heart break when he sees that everyone else clearly knows otherwise.

About halfway through World’s Greatest Dad the plot finally kicks in, taking a hilarious but sad character study into unforeseen depths of narrative and thematic quality (and yes, comedy). Bobcat Goldthwait thwarts every audience expectation, turning familiar plot points into shocking twists and unexpected character motivations into the only possible course of events. It’s only unfortunate for critics that Goldthwait waited until the second half of the film to reveal all his cards, making it nigh impossible to explain to audiences why we recommend it so strongly without potentially ruining the experience for everyone who really needs to see such an exceptional piece of filmmaking (i.e. you).

Audiences are unlikely to find a funnier, smarter or more original piece of filmmaking this year, and special praise goes to the cast for grounding a challenging story in unmistakable humanity. Robin Williams, who otherwise sure seems to phone it in a lot lately, reminds audiences why he’s a household name, and while it’s unlikely that the Oscars will give him a much-deserved Best Actor nomination, maybe he can get a decent engraving company to replace the words “Good Will Hunting” with “World’s Greatest Dad” on his Academy Award. Most importantly, however, is that Bobcat Goldthwait (of all people) has officially thrown his hat into the ring as one of the most interesting directors working today, and audiences everywhere should be excited to see what he has to offer us next.

It’s widely believed that overwhelmingly positive reviews are less entertaining to read, but blame Bobcat Goldthwait for that. Not many filmmakers can make as jaded a critic as I am auto-erotically asphyxiate himself all over his laptop, but hey, at least he introduced me to something new and exciting. See World’s Greatest Dad. There’s a good chance that it’s the year’s greatest movie.

World’s Greatest Dad, written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait and starring Robin Williams, Alexie Gilmore, Daryl Sabara, Henry Simmons and Geoffrey Pierson, premieres in limited release on August 21st, 2009.