The World's Greatest Dad

 I've been on a bit of a Bobcat Goldthwait exploratory revival lately. When it comes to his standup, I can say with confidence that he's near, if not at the top of my list of solid standup comics. Using George Carlin as an example, a lot of my favorite comedians typically have periods in their careers I am not all that fond of. Carlin's late stuff to me was a bit morbid for my taste. Even some of his earlier takes don't often stand up to my autismancer-esque scrutiny. I haven't seen a piece of standup, interview, or even an individual take by Goldthwait that even comes close to disappointing me like some of my other favorite comedians.

I remember watching the first movie he wrote, "Shakes the Clown" and was kinda 'meh'ed by it. He's had some time to put some other movies on his credits of writing or directing... So I've been going through what I could find of his.

The other day I watched "God Bless America" and while it had its moments, I wasn't really impressed by it. Unfortunately I think Goldthwait painted himself into a corner, story-wise. It left me slightly entertained, but mostly again, just 'meh'. There was no graceful way he could have ended it.

I watched an interview the yesterday with him and Robin Williams. They were promoting a new (circa 2009) film they had done together called "The World's Greatest Dad".

Today I was awestruck. I just got done watching this movie. The beginning was cringy, painful, and almost boring... yet still entertaining.

Once the boom dropped and the full realization of the plot came in play, the cringy, uncomfortable beginning helped it turn into work of art. I'm not going to discuss the movie in case someone hasn't seen it and would like to experience it fresh, despite it being a decade and half old. I can understand if someone hasn't seem or even heard of it. It's kinda obscure.

I thoroughly enjoyed where the story took you, and was extremely satisfied by the ending. Something hard to pull off with grace in a great dark comedy. Dark comedies are hard to write and pull off properly, in my opinion.

I would compare how well it was done to the likes of Matt Broderick's 'Election' or Winona Ryder's 'Heathers'. Oh, and a warning; it's dark. It explores a few extremely dark and uncomfortable situations that occur in our world that will make some people chaff.

TrailerHere