Magnolia Films have unveiled a trailer and poster combination in anticipation of the upcoming release for Bobcat Goldthwait’s (“Sleeping Dogs Lie,” TV’s “The Chapelle Show”) indie-dramedy “World’s Greatest Dad.”
The film stars Robin Williams as Lance Clayton, a high school poetry teacher and single father who yearns for so much more. In light of a freak accident and in the face of the greatest tragedy in his life, Lance takes a path that could help him achieve his dreams – as long as he can live with the knowledge of how he got there. Co-starring in the film are Daryl Sabara as his son and Alexie Gilmore as his lover and fellow teacher.
Aesthetically, we’re not quite sure what the poster is trying to achieve particularly with the positioning of the title. It feels a little tame and uninspired. From what we’ve read, the trailer seems ultimately misleading in regards to the film’s plot – though that might be on account an attempt to steer clear of significant plot points. Further, warnings of the film’s heavy darkness from just about every online review fails shine through the trailer, especially considering it’s the R-Rated version.
Of the film, Film School Rejects noted that “this film is dark — really, really dark. It is the type of movie that your average Hollywood studio wouldn’t dare make, the type of film that won’t speak to anyone.” From the trailer but, there isn’t much to shock other than a few comments and actions by the character of Kyle (Sabara) which aren’t exactly jaw dropping anyway. We’ll save judgements on that for now but, marketing aside, the trailer definitely exhibits promising things overall from Williams and company. You’d think they wanted to leverage all the twistedness for the crowd that loves that type of stuff (in typical hyperbolic mode, Chud called it “genius”), but perhaps they’re trying to catch the flies of the mainstream Robin Williams crowd which is bound to fail.Still the accolades are high so we’re very curious, but both these pieces of promotional material are pretty flat and non-compelling.
“World’s Greatest Dad” screened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival to predominantly strong, positive reviews and will see a theatrical release on August 21. [Vulture]
