WARNING: This Review Contains SPOILERS
World’s Greatest Dad is quite possibly the most twisted and likable film of the year. Similar to this year’s other genius dark comedy Observe and Report this is also an intelligent satire that contains a handful of rich characters. For those willing to embrace it’s dark tone: they will be greatly rewarded.
Lance Clayton (Robin Williams) is a good teacher and a genuinely warm-hearted person. He has dreams of becoming a writer, but is currently stuck as a high school poetry teacher. He is an single parent who has quite possibly one of the worst sons a father could have. Kyle (Daryl Sabara) is an unrelenting jerk who is consistently rude and downright hateful. Kyle looks at his dad as a joke and doesn’t take him seriously. Lance is dating a fellow teacher named Claire (Alexie Gilmore) who also treats him poorly. She’s a cheating, dopey and unlikable person. After his son Kyle accidentally kills himself after a repeated attempt of auto-erotic asphyxiation, things start to finally get better for Lance.
He covers up his son’s death as a suicide and the fake suicide letter he writers for him gets him and his horrible son local fame. Everyone around him becomes effectuated with both of them and Lance is finally starts to feel happy. He grasps the opportunity to take advantage of his son’s sudden fame by passing off his own writing as his sons. All this leads to Lance’s writing getting more attention – his lifelong dream coming to fruition.
This is story is nowhere near predictable nor contrived; each element contains its own shock value. The story builds up with Lance committing more and more morally wrong acts. His consistent investment in all of his actions are without-a-doubt intriguing. One of the most admirable aspects of the story is the social commentary that director Bobcat Goldthwait intejects. Once the nearly-friendless Kyle dies and his faux-writing becomes known, everyone acts as if he was a good person and as if they were all friends i.e. people glorify a a truly despicable person due to their passing. This film is filled with these gloriously shameless comments on society and human nature.
Williams is a marvel here, delivering his best performance since his creepy turn in One Hour Photo. At first he plays Lance as a sympathetic and likable hero forced to deal with an unappreciative child. His actions later on are on the level of his own son Kyle, despicable yet oddly sympathetic and understandable. He crafts such an honest and genuinely involving character at first that you stick with him throughout his journey of moral decay. Also making for another excellent performance is Sabara, who makes for one of the most selfish characters to grace the screen this year. Kyle truly is a horrible person and he sets up the perfect amount of empathy for Lance, helping the story move along splendidly. The only gripe one could have with this film is that your left wanting more of Sabara’s vicious Kyle.
In many ways World’s Greatest Dad contains similar story elements to Observe and Report, when considering all of morally-questionable acts. The reason none of these acts come off as in bad taste stems from there interesting presentation within the film. Lance Clayton is similar to Ronnie Barnhardt (who Seth Rogen played in Observe and Report); you see him transition throughout the film, delving into morally questionable areas. Except, unlike Ronnie, in the end Lance actually learns something. This is a comedy classic in the making and will surely be garnished with love from all the dark comedy lovers out there.
9 out of 10
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Editor’s Note: World’s Greatest Dad is currently available on video-on-demand on Comcast and will be released theatrically on August 21st.