God Bless Bobcat Goldthwait

The first time for me seeing Bobcat Goldthwait perform under any spotlight was in the Police Academy movies. His role was initially small although it got larger in one of the sequels. Me being only a child with no idea of good taste at the time, unless taste revolved around pizza, I was clueless that Bobcat Goldthwait was a touring comedian and a writer. When I saw the movie One Crazy Summer, a movie I love to this day, he offered more of the same slovenly, drooling, mentally unhinged character that most audiences were accustomed to, but wherever I saw him appear, be it in movies or on television, Bobcat was always entertaining. This was back in the 80’s when everyone wondered if he really spoke like a drunken seal. In actuality he is a very intelligent, eloquent human being and, in my unheard, oblivious opinion, has become a great filmmaker and keeps getting better with his growing stable of independent films.

In the late eighties, Bobcat maintained a steady amount of touring while tackling obscure film and television projects now and again while he refined his skills not only in front of the camera but with everything behind it as well, including the big three tricks - writing, producing, and directing. His first motion picture endeavor as a cinematic Jack of all trades was Shakes the Clown (1991); a dark comedy (Bobcat’s specialty) about an alcoholic party clown framed for murder. It gained critical success but fell off the radar almost immediately at the box office. Afterwards, Bobcat remained out of the spotlight while taking TV directing gigs and became the head director for Jimmy Kimmel Live back in 2004, which he still does today.

Bobcat was one of the first entertainment personalities to satirize reality television with his TV movie Windy City Heat (2003) where an out of luck actor obsessed with superstardom has no idea that his first big break is a complete hoax, from pre-production all the way to the fake movie premier. Sleeping Dogs Lie (2006) is where I feel that his off-camera talents truly begin to shine. In this film, a loving couple takes a trip to the girl’s parent’s house for the weekend where she divulges an embarrassing secret to her future hopeful husband. All the happiness and sunshine spirals downward. It becomes a joy to watch their loving unity collapse and nearly drown both of them as well. This isn’t the easiest movie to find humorous, much like all of his movies, but if you’re familiar with Bobcat’s brand of dark humor, you can definitely find the funny. World’s Greatest Dad (2009) starred Robin Williams as a luckless man who uses his son’s accidental death, which he fakes as a suicide, to catapult himself into fortune and fame. This one had me glued to the screen and quickly became my favorite movie by Mr. Goldthwait because of the absurd desperation of the father. It was my favorite until.....

God Bless America (2011). God Bless Bobcat, I say. I loved this movie from start to finish. Bobcat reunites with Joel Murray whom he shared screen time with in One Crazy Summer. Yes, Joel happens to be Bill Murray’s younger brother, you can hear their heritage in Joel’s dialect, but in this film Joel delivers a wonderful, emotionally charged performance. Joel is usually relegated to side characters and bit parts but being the main star, he delivered greatly.

In the movie Joe plays Frank, a down and out generally good guy whose life is crumbling right before his eyes. He’s recently divorced, his only child thinks he is too boring to spend time with, and he loses his job. Oh, and he’s received news that he has an inoperable tumor in his head. This sets Frank to deal with his true irritation - America’s growing fascination and approval of rude chauvinists gaining notoriety through reality television and through political annihilation. Against his better judgment, Frank accepts the aid of thirteen-year-old psychopath Roxy played by Tara Lynn Barr who herself delivers an effective performance, particularly considering her lengthy monologues which are not short on energetic passion. Together, the two set out across America on a killing spree targeting the rude idiots on American television and there are people in the real world that would love to either do such a thing or see something like it happen, but thankfully it’s relegated to a movie. But give it time, some unfortunate malcontent still might take up the challenge.

With his latest effort Willow Creek having recently premiered at various film festivals across the country, I’m anxious to watch it because I want to see how much further Bobcat Goldthwait has progressed and I want to know what misfortune his characters are experiencing. I want to know what bizarre, ill-fated situation they are going to find themselves in. His movies do not have what people would call happy endings. They have real endings. They have believable endings because we are not dealing with completely mentally stable characters. We’re dealing with people that came from the mind of Bobcat Goldthwait. I don’t think that is a mind anyone could handle being inside of for longer than ninety minutes, but what he does choose to share with us and what he chooses to create, I can’t wait for another rollercoaster ride.