After having watched this, I think it was one of the most strangely entertaining films I’ve ever seen. It was written and directed by actor/comedian Bobcat Goldthwait who really seemed to capture something with this film. He has certainly come a long ways since flops such as Shakes the Clown (1991). In my opinion, one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. I also remember him acting in indie films like One Crazy Summer (1986) which is a goofy cult-like comedy. One more mention about Bobscratch Goldfarb (Bobcat Goldthwait) one of his nicknames, you might also remember him from the Police Academy movies as Zed.
This story is basically about a man named Lance Clayton played by Robin Williams who is a writer, and dreams to be main-stream published one day. He is divorced and has a very unusual son obsessed with pornography among other things and is a real jerk. Lance works as a high school teacher teaching a poetry class. His son Kyle played by Daryl Sabara is embarrassed about his father working at his school and has but only one friend named Andrew played by Evan Martin. Alexie Gilmore plays Claire one of the teachers at the school who is close to Lance in a romantic relationship. Henry Simmons plays Lance’s rival named Mike Lane.
More of the cast includes Morgan Murphy as Murphy, Naomi Glick as Ginger, Dan Spencer as Dan Spencer, Geoff Pierson as Principal Anderson, Zach Sanchez is Peter, Ellie Jameson is Jennifer, Michael Thomas Moore as Chris, Alles Mist as Metal Kid, Jermaine Williams as Jason, and Lorraine Nicholson as Heather.
I believe this film would be considered a dark comedy; Robin Williams is simply wonderful as Lance and is very believable. His son Kyle played by Daryl Sabara also does a nice job and is equally convincing. The movie is about relationships and life and how we treat one another. It also shows how phony people can be in certain situations as well as some stereotypes about people. I will recommend this as a must see film.
