Adapted from the graphic novel by noted misanthrope Daniel Clowes, this bummer comedy stars Woody Harrelson as the title character, a middle-aged layabout in Oakland who meets up again with his ex-wife, played by Laura Dern, and discovers that he has a teenage biological daughter being raised by adoptive parents out in the suburbs. The comic strips that make up the Clowes novel typically culminate in Wilson blurting out some acrid put-down or doom-heavy insight; onscreen, as delivered by the cantankerous star, these gags play like rancid Cheers outtakes. With Ghost World (2001) and Art School Confidential (2006), director Terry Zwigoff managed to replicate Clowes’s weird tone of mingled empathy and revulsion; Craig Johnson, coming to this project from his indie success The Skeleton Twins, can’t find the heart in this fractured, disappointed family. With Judy Greer, Cheryl Hines, and Margo Martindale.
Wilson
R • 1 hour 34 min • 2017
