Robin Williams is universally beloved now, but in the early days of the 21st century, that wasn’t the case. A lot of the man’s goodwill had been used up as he took on one schmaltzy, cloying tearjerker after another, following a trail of Oscar-bait into near-irrelevance. But in 2002, Williams decided to remind everyone he still had chops, smacking audiences around with amazing turns in Insomnia, One Hour Photo, and Danny DeVito’s acidic farce set in the world of children’s entertainment, Death to Smoochy. Smoochy is the most lightweight of the three, but there’s something to the manic desperation in Williams’ performance that suggests this was the role that cut closest to his people-pleasing bones. by Bobby Roberts