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90A very funny comedy. It's a very funny comedy that almost made me cry.
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83Williams hasn't been this sympathetic in years.
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83With Dad and his last writer-director effort, "Sleeping Dogs Lie," Goldthwait has accomplished the formidable feat of making wry, tender, fundamentally sweet comedies about the human condition that just happen to center on acts of autoerotic asphyxiation and bestiality, respectively. That isn't easy.
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The particular stew of midlife and pubescent despair that clogs a single-father male-child household has rarely been achieved so well.
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For all of its cutting cynicism, "Dad" proves unexpectedly moving in its portrait of a middle-aged man leaving childish things behind.
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80With a merciless acuity this nihilistic comedy ridicules collective grief and the news media's cynical marketing of inspirational uplift after a death.
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75This premise is well-established because of a disturbingly good performance by Daryl Sabara as Kyle, the disgusting son.
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75For a comedy about autoerotic asphyxiation, epic deception, and shameless exploitation, World's Greatest Dad is a surprisingly sweet and tender affair.
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After leading the audience into some very inky satire, Goldthwait backs off.
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75Goldthwaite's script has the honesty of someone speaking with the voice of experience.
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75The edginess here isn't merely facile. Goldthwait's movies, including the under-appreciated "Shakes the Clown," are about reclaiming dignity from the dung heap. And he's found a fitting collaborator.
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75Yes, a comedy, however dark, about a parent taking advantage of a child's death is a tough sell. But with Williams more restrained and sympathetic than he's been in years (again, faint praise), and a final act that makes up for a ponderous first third, "Dad" shows that it can be done.
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70The picture wobbles a bit before emerging a successful low-key satire of literary fraud and morbid personality cults.
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70May not be for everyone, but filmgoers tuned in to its particular, perverse frequency will find much to value in its bent sense of humor and compassion.
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70With his delicate mix of sick humor and compassion, Goldthwait is that rare comic writer who can legitimately be compared to Lenny Bruce.
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67At around the halfway point the film takes an intriguing swerve, as Kyle is canonized and Lance is unexpectedly launched into celebrityhood. Flashes of deadpan outrageousness occasionally redeem the dourness.
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63A tad too long, and takes its sweet time to get to the point. But its twisted heart is in the right place.
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63A few scenes in World's Greatest Dad may qualify it as the most uncomfortable and unsettling movie to sit through of any this year.
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63It takes a while for the movie to build to its wicked possibilities and only a few scenes to squander them.
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60Odd, confident, challenging, and featuring a brilliant turn by Williams. If only there was just a little more to it.
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60Though wildly uneven, the film sometimes comes within screaming distance of the sick ironies of "Heathers." That's how loudly Goldthwait still knows how to yell.
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Dunderheaded delirium from writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait.
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50Sadly, once the movie shifts gears, it becomes a timid "Donnie Darko."
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50Ultimately offers some ironic amusement but wallows too long in the sins of its father.
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