World's Greatest Dad (2009)

19 Aug 2014

#TAGS:
discremenating humor
physical comedy

thought provoking thinking

fresh perspective
did not get it
cliché message
layered meaning (good for over-thinking/multiple viewing)

immersive atmosphere

expected outcome
acceptable suspense (developments predicted minutes before)
some characters lacking development

untraceable (natural) acting
dramatic acting

#COMMENTS:

the fact that the fake journal accelerated other students (esp. the guy who “came out”, the bully who calls kyle a loser for his dad calling him a loser) in their self-discovery versus the selfishly despicable acts of the dad (addressing Kyle up to ease his own embarrassment and advance his own gain) itself posed a schwere ethical dicotomy: did the dad did the “right” thing for ghostwriting the journal?

personally, I think the most “correct” solution at the end would be that the dad use the power of his selling journal as a tool to distinguish the phoniness around him and distance himself away from it; letting free of all the physical truth at the end does not help anyone but the dad himself (again) – they won’t start to question their own fakery but just to laugh at the dad’s lies and manipulations. stopping at “none of you liked him. I don’t like him either but I loved him” is good enough for that. saying fuck it and let go all the truth after contriving an elaborate network of lies is just an equally selfish way of relieving your own guilt. (the truth should be shared to andrew of course, since he knew anyway)
but if the whole thing can be do-over, writing a more genuine suicide note and then a book in rememberance of kyle/confession of his bad parenting in not discussing these deep things with him would be the most noble action – even though it would probably not “sell” well at all.

kyle himself is not a well developed character. is he simply “slow?” or is there another side of the story? his obsessions and hate just doesn’t quite compute as the only aspect of his consciousness. (I haven’t met anyone that simple.)

one more technical note. dad just kissed the shit female teacher for like 5 minutes at most and then drove home while kyle was walking back… how the fuck is dad too slow to save kyle? the first thing would be to call the fucking ambulence if you truely wanted him to live and grow. kind of thinking the situation constitutes a “murder” as even basic CPR were not attempted

in fact the dad is really the world’s worst dad on the rational side of things. failed at parenting and twice took advantage of the son’s death. being a nice/agreeable person does not make you a good person (referring to buying kyle a monitor, and just simply asking “what’s your passion” is not how things work).

oh and “I am what I hate” lol

#TAG SCORE: 13