The Hip Pocket #47: WORLD'S GREATEST DAD

There is no single canon.

We all have movies we love.

Some of them are great movies. Some of them are terrible movies. Love does not care. Love is unreasonable. Love is blind. We love what we love, and the louder you love it, the better.

One of my favorite things is sharing a film I love with someone. Even if they don't love it the same way I do, that experience imparts something about you to that person. When you share something you love, you are sharing a part of yourself, and there is nothing more vulnerable or personal than that.

I don't think of these movies as the canon or the official library or anything that formal. These are all just movies I keep in my hip pocket, movies I've filed away as part of my own personal ongoing film festival as worthwhile and notable.

This is an ongoing list, one without an ending. This is The Hip Pocket.

World’s Greatest Dad
Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara, Morgan Murphy, Naomi Glick, Dan Spencer, Geoff Pierson, Henry Simmons, Zach Sanchez-Vitale, Alexie Gilmore, Evan Martin, Ellyn Jameson, Mikey Moore, Ray Buckley, Jermaine Williams, Lorraine Nicholson, Mitzi McCall, Rebecca Erwin Spencer, Cheri Minns, Zazu, Tony V. Krist Novoselic, Mable Mae, Zoe, Tom Kenny, Jill Talley, Toby Huss, Deborah Horne, Bruce Hornsby, Riley Dean Stone
cinematography by Horacio Marquinez
music by Gerald Brunskill
screenplay by Bobcat Goldthwait
produced by Richard Kelly, Sean McKittrick, Howard Gertler and Tim Perell
directed by Bobcat Goldthwait
Rated R
1 hr 39 mins

When a father finds his teenage son dead, he tries to avoid humiliation, and in the process, tells a series of life-changing lies that affect his entire community.

Why do we like dark comedy?

Why do we laugh at the most horrible things in life? What is that impulse? And why is it so difficult to get dark comedy right?

I remember sitting in the audience at Sundance at this film’s first screening and feeling that moment when half the audience decided they weren’t going to go along with what writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait had in store for them. Even though I was laughing loudly, I understood why he had lost some of the crowd. This is an abrasive, often unpleasant movie, featuring characters who make terrible decisions, and if you’re looking for someone to root for, you will still be waiting as the closing credits start to roll. It is not a film I can easily recommend to everyone, but for those who are willing to take the ride, it is a satire sharp enough to leave a mark.