Willow Creek

Dir: Bobcat Goldthwait

2013

**

Bobcat Goldthwait is an awesome writer and director, his two previous films; World's Greatest Dad and God Bless America are two of the most underrated but best examples of the best of modern satire, so my expectations were high, even though his venture into the found footage horror sub-genre was something of a puzzling surprise. I think I had hoped that he would do something clever with it, give the genre a satirical twist and maybe send it up a little, rather than just make a quick cheap horror to cash in on. I don't think either is true but I hope he made lots of money from Willow Creek and uses it to make much better films. I'm not the biggest fan of found footage horrors, they have a place but I feel the genre has been exhausted. Goldthwait brings nothing new to the table with Willow Creek, other than the fact he is the first director to make a film about chasing Big Foot (or Sasquatch if you'd prefer) using this style of filming. What I will give him credit for however is the story and character development. It does look and feel like you'd imagine a piece of found footage to be like. There isn't too much wobbly camera action and the jumps of scares are limited and never wasted. The biggest problem with it is that it is just okay. It's fine. Nothing more than that. It ticks all the boxes, is formulaic and predictable but is never over cooked. There are moments of interests along the story's life-span but Goldthwait gambles everything on the film's conclusion, which is a risky move that I'm not sure pays off. It is open to interpretation somewhat, which is a good thing in my opinion (I'm sure many others disagree) and I'm torn between two lines of thinking. The only problem is that whether either is true, neither is particularly impressive or handled well and I'm not sure whether either is sufficient pay off for sitting through an hour and a half of very little action. The film is 79 minutes long and I don't feel my time was well spent watching it. It's a good effort for a horror/found footage debut but it's a bitter disappointment given Goldthwait's talent and ability. If it were a brand new director I might suggest they showed promise but really, the most positive thing I can really say of it is that I've seen worse, which I don’t think is quite good enough.

God Bless America
Dir: Bobcat Goldthwait
2011
*****
I feel like Frank most days (without the killing part). A film like this, IE; a film that has a person kill another for not being very nice is always going to be flawed in a way due to the contradiction of the action. Surely it's better to have a reason though, Bonnie and Clyde is a great film and is commonly regarded as an American classic but I would argue that it depicts a darker set of individuals or is at least the the worse of two evils. It is of course dripping in satire, not just as a reaction to modern culture (if you can call it culture) but also to films and television being made today, the unhealthy beliefs of self importance and the 'rights' people think they're entitled too. It's shocking, it's also quite wrong in many ways, making it a well balanced and pure satire. The script is brilliant, it smashes old cliches to pieces and gives a very decent twist to the usual ' Bonnie and Clyde' style of film. The acting is also very good but what works the best is the way that all the things that are depicted in this film are not exaggerated - television really is this bad today and people are this moronic. This film is destined to be either loved or misunderstood but then if everyone loved it it wouldn't exist would it. Bobcat Goldthwait is a brilliant writer and director and is without doubt one of the most interesting film makers working in America today, certain one of the best satirists the country has ever seen and long may he reign. I like to think that God Bless America and Idiocracy are linked, God Bless America taking place while Luke Wilson's Corporal Joe Bauers is in hibernation.

World's Greatest Dad
Dir: Bobcat Goldthwait
2009
*****
Wonderful is word often misused and certainly rarely used in describing a black comedy but I think it's quite apt here. Bobcat Goldthwait, of all people, has produced something beautiful out of something absolutely horrid, although I think its lack of success might have something to do with people's misinterpretation of the subject. World's Greatest Dad, staring Robin Williams in the title role, sees the single father of a rebellious and rather vile teenager who is unruly at school and not much better at home. When William's character comes home to find his son dead following a misguided attempt at autoerotic asphyxiation, he puts his years of being an English teacher and his yearning to one day become a writer to good use and writes an eloquent and touching suicide note in his son's name. While suicide isn't something a parent could ever be proud of, it is much better than being known as the kid who died after a death wank, or at least that is his thinking. It's dark, there's no denying it, but there is something quite profound in this very modern satire. Audiences have been so dumbed down over the years that they no longer see something truly wonderful and selfless as this is. Finding beauty in something so tragically ugly is a gift. I'm gushing. I'm so impressed though, as a fan of original cinema and the odd black comedy. It made my wife cry. If you knew my wife I wouldn't have to write a review, you'd just know it was brilliant because she wept despite the subject matter. Robin Williams is also so good in it, I personally think it's one of his best. He'll be remembered for Dead Poets Society and Good Will Hunting my most people, and that's fine, but it's the little daring roles he played that I enjoyed most. I think this is him at the top of his game, it's just a little hard not to see the poignancy this film now has considering his own death. There is no other film like it but I would go as far as saying that it is the most honest a film that Hollywood could ever dream of making, brilliantly conceived and wonderfully written.