World's Greatest Dad: Critic Reviews

World's Greatest Dad, Bobcat Goldthwait's latest garishly potty-mouthed and over-the-top black comedy, blows up every rule of taste, good cinema, and common sense, and somehow gets away with it.

With a merciless acuity this nihilistic comedy ridicules collective grief and the news media's cynical marketing of inspirational uplift after a death.

This film is bold and provocative, but it's weak at the core. It is the weakness of an old dog trying desperately to learn new tricks.

Though hampered by an uneven tone and a disturbing conclusion, World's Greatest Dad is a bold, black comedy balanced by an unexpected sense of humanity.

As a filmmaker seeking to master the art of satire without cynicism, Bobcat Goldthwait might be one sick puppy -- but he's also the sweetest one we've got.

At times, the film recalls some amalgam of Heathers' and Election,' but its talons don't draw the same blood.

Lands improbably on its feet after every reckless plot turn.

Sleeping Dogs Lie -- a/k/a "the dog blowjob rom-com" -- planted the seed (OK, wrong choice of words) that Goldthwait wrings tender humanity from disturbing premises, but his scandalously entertaining new satire proves a darker, funnier success.

Once the movie shifts gears, it becomes a timid Donnie Darko-like surrealist fable.

Who could have guessed that a cat named Bobcat could write a screenplay or direct a film as refreshingly sensitive as this one?

Making Kyle godawful may seem edgy, even authentic. But it's pure setup.

Bobcat Goldthwait makes a daring assault in World's Greatest Dad against our yearning to mythologize the dead. But he loses his nerve just before the earth is completely scorched.

With his delicate mix of sick humor and compassion, Goldthwait is that rare comic writer who can legitimately be compared to Lenny Bruce.

For a comedy about autoerotic asphyxiation, epic deception, and shameless exploitation, World's Greatest Dad is a surprisingly sweet and tender affair.

Offering Robin Williams his richest role in memory while serving up a nice cold bowl of shock soup for the audience, World's Greatest Dad is a surprisingly smart and severely twisted dark comedy from comic Bobcat Goldthwait.

At 99 minutes, World's Greatest Dad is a tad too long, and takes its sweet time to get to the point. But its twisted heart is in the right place.

The movie essentially relies on the same joke being told over and over. But Goldthwait finds enough clever ways into that joke to make it seem fresh, and he makes you curious to see how far he's willing to push it.

For all of its cutting cynicism, Dad proves unexpectedly moving in its portrait of a middle-aged man leaving childish things behind.

Goldthwait has given it a title that will make some shy away. But don't. It's a comedy about the particularly American capacity to create legends out of the dead, and it's sharper than most.

Beware that poster, with its jolly red writing and Mork from Ork's face thereon. This is not the Robin Williams of Old Dogs and License To Wed.

Writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait can't quite manage to bring things to a satisfying conclusion, but he's good enough at weaving the freakishly perverse into the everyday without the results seeming too forced.

A comedy of quite astonishing blackness.