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OK, full disclosure: I know the writer/director Richard Prendergast from our old days making snowboard magazines and videos. So when he gave me a sneak preview to what he'd been up to since we last spoke a couple of years ago, I watched with interest mixed with dread - what if it sucked, and I had to pretend I'd enjoyed it? Faking it is not my style.

Luckily, I had nothing to worry about. Prendi's come a long, long way since we last worked together, and this elegantly crafted short is a gem. I don't want to give away too much, but Sylvia is clever, touching and comes with a devastatingly effective twist in the tail. But the true payoff was finding out this tale is based on a true story. I'll leave it at that...

Like a lot of you, I saw the low IMDb score and decided I would give this a pass. I thought it would be tacky and trite and clichéd and awful. But it's not. It's really funny. A lolcano.

The storyline is predictable enough to not distract you from the main objective, which is to laugh at the cast of dimwit teachers and naive kids being chewed up and spat out by raunchy, manipulative, potty-mouth gold-digger Diaz. The plot line may be predictable but the humour is anything but.

If you like Cameron Diaz, Jason Segal and Timberlake (and I do, and you should) then trust them, trust me: ignore the low score that comes from a lot of people expecting something cutesy and tame. This movie is awesome.

I loved the characterisation of this movie: Robin Williams is one of those actors you have to like. So when, as in this movie, he plays someone who is sweet and kind and weak and crawling through moral quicksand, the resulting conflict you feel has you laughing out loud and wringing your hands with anxiety all at the same time.

The plot is original and comes with a couple of unforgettable twists. The dialogue is sharp, the humour dark. The moral compass is spinning wildly, but it straightens up for us in the end.

There is a quote at the end of the movie that really struck a chord with me.

"I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone, but it's not. The worst thing is ending up with people who make you feel all alone."

Brilliant.