I decided to adjust how I covered Bobcat Goldthwait's World's Greatest Dad due to its innovative, non-traditional release plan. I knew everyone else would be scheduling coverage for the week of release, as per usual. I wanted to wait and see what happened with the length of its run in Austin. I'm not so pompous that I'd think one review from me would me more effective than the pile of reviews that came out timed to its opening. Since it didn't get a second weekend at the one theater in town playing WGD (the Dobie), I felt compelled to go ahead. I figured I'd wait until the waning weeks of its theatrical run, but I didn't expect that to come so soon.
The reason I don't feel bad waiting this long is that most viewers, even those in indie-friendly Austin, will see this movie in their homes. It's still available via HD VOD (same price in Standard Def) on the vast majority of cable providers for $9.99, less than the cost of two tickets anywhere in the country. I knew I couldn't make the press screening in advance of an evening show here in Austin with both Bobcat and Daryl Sabara appearing in-person, so I opted to pay for the VOD viewing. It was the first time I had done it, and it worked really well. If there's any pretense in this review, it's in my hope that I can help boost the overall take of the movie since it's left many theaters.
Robin Williams and Daryl Sabara are paired magnificently here, with Sabara surprising me the most with his portrayal of the world's worst kid. Kyle (Sabara) is the living embodiment of the mallrat mutants that make people not want to leave the house anymore. Everything is "gay" and "stupid" to him, and he has no concerns but his personal obsessions.
The brilliant Daryl Sabara, playing much more immature and toxic than he is in real life. It takes a brain to play a sleaze well...
Lance (Williams) is stuck with this cromagnon in a boy's body for his son, a beautiful girlfriend who doesn't want their relationship to be public, and diminishing attendance in his Poetry class. Lance is an aspiring writer who's never gotten noticed or published in a big way, and he's trapped on all sides until something terrible happens, offering him an escape at a cost. This inciting incident doesn't happen until a ways into the movie. Perhaps it's been spoiled for you already, perhaps not. Either way, I refuse to specifically spoil the tragedy that befalls Kyle's dad. It's hilarious for only an instant, quickly turning heartbreaking and soulful.
That is the very moment many will discover that Bobcat Goldthwait is a truly gifted director and storyteller. With no qualifications, I feel that after this and Stay (retitled Sleeping Dogs Lie), he's one of the most talented auteurs we have discovered in the first years of this century. I'm convinced that had he let any studio or backer muscle him around, the movie would not be so wholly satisfying. The fact he stood his ground is a rarity in an industry of complacency and kiss-asses.
Supporting cast are note-perfect, from the better-known Geoffrey Pierson (co-star of Bobcat's on Unhappily Ever After) to relative unknowns, like Jack's daughter Lorraine Nicholson and Naomi Glick, whose sole IMdB credit is WGD. Glick plays a bookish redheaded girl, and Nicholson plays the Emo Girl stereotype personified to riotous effect. They're just two examples of the many great ten or twenty line roles that stick with you well after the credits rolled. The film will similarly stick out toward the end of the year for those who see it, well after they've choked down piles of awards season junk.
Lorraine Nicholson nearly steals the movie more than once
I had the chance to chat with Goldthwait and Sabara, and it was particularly good to speak with Daryl (no offense, Bobcat). Many will rush to refer to him as The Spy Kids Boy, but that unfairly ignores his excellent work in Normal Adolescent Behavior (I disregard the tacked-on DVD title) and Keeping Up With the Steins. He's one of the rare child actors to go on to find good material and good people to work with.
I followed up on a scoop picked up by Devin Faraci at CHUD regarding Bobcat's desire to adapt The Kinks' Schoolboys in Disgrace into a film. Bobcat seemed more vague about the order in which he was looking at different things happening, from Schoolboys to a slasher script he's working on to other, unspecified projects. In the next breath, I asked Daryl about his interest in applying his dance background to doing a musical.
I don't know if Bobcat had already thought of Daryl playing Mr. Flash, the main character of Schoolboys in Disgrace, but I hope he has or does. Schoolboys follows Flash during his school days. In broad strokes, it's the origin story of a villain who who goes bad as a result of negative reinforcement. He serves as the antagonist of the next Kinks "theatrical" record, Preservation (Acts I & II). Adding Goldthwait's friend Robin Williams into the mix could be interesting as well, but enough with my starry-eyed dream casting. The music is memorable, the story is provocative, and with Goldthwait's eye and skill, Schoolboys in Disgrace has the potential of becoming a cult-spawning phenomenon.
The portrait of a wonderful collaboration
For the life of me, I can't get the audio file off of my recording device, so I can only offer my apologies that it can't be posted here. I should just go back to a tape recorder. The movie is excellent, and I recommend catching it if not in theaters where you live, on VOD at home of DVD/Blu-ray after that.