sleeping dogs lie Tagged Articles at Cinematical

You may have heard about Bobcat Goldthwait's current film, World's Greatest Dad, possibly from all the raving various people at Cinematical have done about it. It's an outrageously dark comedy -- but that should be no surprise if you've seen any of Bobcat's previous films, including Sleeping Dogs Lie, which I've chosen as AOL/SlashControl's free flick of the day.

Sleeping Dogs Lie premiered under its original title, Stay, at Sundance in 2006, where its perverse subject matter was taboo even by Sundance standards. It's about a young woman who has fallen in love with a guy she hopes to marry, but she's not sure whether she can ever tell him about a certain embarrassing moment in her sexual history. It involves a dog, that's all I'm sayin'. Finally she takes the plunge and tells her boyfriend, and that's when the squirm-inducing comedy really takes off.

Not surprisingly, Goldthwait had a hard time finding a distributor for the movie. The best it ever got was a two-week run on six screens, grossing $15,745 in the U.S., but another $622,000 internationally. (Apparently this sort of thing plays better in foreign countries. Make of that what you will.) It's obviously not for everyone, but if you like bawdy, clever, shocking comedy, it's worth watching. It will almost certainly make you feel better about whatever shameful secrets you have in your own past.

Watch Sleeping Dogs Lie at SlashControl.

The Bobcat Goldthwait I knew from watching cable as a kid was not the same Bobcat who greeted me at the Magnolia Pictures office and offered me a cookie. It's hard not to refer back to the "old" Bobcat that squawked and spazzed his way to stand-up stardom in the '80s, as well as three Police Academy movies and other flicks that took advantage of his off-the-wall stylings, although it is, in fact, lazy. Goldthwait is now a writer and a director, with three indie movies under his belt. And no, he doesn't really talk like that.

Goldthwait's first movie, Shakes the Clown, has become what people affectionately call a cult movie; Goldthwait plays the main character, an alcoholic womanizing clown mired in an equally bizarre clown subculture. His second outing as a writer and director, Sleeping Dogs Lie, examined the nature of truth in relationships and how much we really want to know about those we love, especially when one's fiancée might reveal she performed oral sex on her dog in college because she was bored one night. It played well at Sundance, but didn't get the same traction from the festival and word-of-mouth that his current film, World's Greatest Dad, is enjoying. Maybe because dog BJs – even implied ones – are gross and could impede viewers from sitting through the first five minutes.

Currently available on-demand and opening in limited cities August 21st, World's Greatest Dad stars Robin Williams as schlubby Lance Clayton – a poetry teacher who has had countless manuscripts rejected, a sad sap with a smile that looks more like a grimace, and the father of one of the most loathsome teenagers to grace the screen in a non-horror movie in quite some time.

Okay: Bobcat Goldthwait + Robin Williams + a title like World's Greatest Dad = run for the hills. Right? I mean, I had to suppress a shriek upon reading that headline. But then I read further and ... this looks kind of awesome. I'm not joking.

Here's the pitch: Williams plays a high school poetry teacher and failed writer whose son dies in a freak masturbation accident. Stay with me here, folks. Not wanting to expose his family to the embarrassing publicity of a freak masturbation accident resulting in death, Williams' character decides to cover it up by writing a fake suicide note and claiming that his son took his own life.

I'm not exactly sure at what age a person is officially grown-up. Some would say you're an adult at 18, Jews feel you're a man at 13. Me, I'm pushing 30, and my wife still calls me a little twit. The way I see it, I'll never be a grown-up because, as each year passes, there will still be more to accomplish, lessons to learn and experiences to encounter.

The following films all feature characters who are going through the process of growing up, be it mentally or physically. Some are youngsters looking to explore new feelings and emotions, while others are older, stuck between the secrets of their past and a troubling future. Welcome to this week's Trailer Park ...