World's Greatest Dad

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Single father Lance Clayton (Williams) is a high school poetry teacher and an unpublished author. Lance is a nice guy and he would never admit to anyone that he thinks his son is an asshole. But he is. 15-year-old Kyle (Sabara) is a chronic masturbator, a known pervert, hates music, doesn't care for movies, is (rightly) ostracised by girls, and treats his father like crap. When Lance finds Kyle dead from autoerotic asphyxiation, he saves his son's blushes by fashioning a suicide scene and prints out a death note. Suddenly, Kyle's persona is reinvented: his suicide note touches student's hearts; girls, who previously shuddered when seeing him, now fight over his memory; this posthumous popularity borders of the cult of Kyle. Moreover, it's the best thing Lance has ever written and there's a clamber for more of 'Kyle's' work...

Heathers covered similar ground in 1988 but World's Greatest Dad is definitely its own animal. Finding comic moments in a teenage suicide film needs a deft touch and although Goldthwait tries too hard from time to time, he gets it right more than wrong here. Like Sleeping Dog's Lie there are massive swings in tone and direction: Goldthwait can't make the jumps seamless and a shifting in the seat is needed to get your head around the new directions that crop up. The long set up - well over a half hour - is dedicated to Williams' frustration, Sabara's abrasiveness and the relationship between the two; so much time is given over to this that when Goldthwait finally gets around to the death scene it comes as a surprise. Then, suddenly, we're watching a different movie, a metaphor for celebrity culture. That's fun.

What isn't fun is Goldthwait's insistence on throwing in needless scenes. Earlier on student attempts to pass off the lyrics of Under Pressure as his own, which is a precursor to a euphoric slow-motion sequence where Williams runs through the school tearing his clothes off to the same tune. But why this is included remains unclear - Goldthwait has no problem setting something up, his problem lies in the pay off. This isn't the only set up/pay off that falls flat and it's jarring. He also asks Alexie Gilmore (Williams' love interest) and Henry Simmons (Williams' love rival) to play their characters like children and it just doesn't sit right.

That said, World's Greatest Dad will garner enough laughs from those who like their comedies odd and dark.