10 Great Dark Film Comedies You Have To See

World's Greatest Dad was released in 2009, and stars Robin Williams in one of his most challenging, complex and unusual roles. A extremely bleak comedy-drama, the film tackles themes of depression, the celebrity, infamy, love and loss with effectiveness and a daring, original plot line based around death and morality.

Starring as single father Lance, Williams spends the movie trying to combat the fear that he will always be alone. Previously aspiring to be a writer, he now works as a teacher and is struggling to connect with underachieving son.

After his son dies from accidental autoerotic asphyxiation, Lance stages the death to look like a suicide to avoid any embarrassment, and writes a fake suicide note. When the note makes into the public, people begin to respond to Lance's writing for the first time, and he starts writing a journal under his son's name.

A deadpan, uncomfortable but endlessly intriguing dramedy, World's Greatest Dad is not for the fainthearted, but thanks to a career-high performance from Williams and an engaging, risk-taking script, it's not a film you really want to miss. Its themes of loneliness and identity are particularly well achieved, and for originality and acting talent alone it's another under-seen gem in need of a wider audience.