Goliath

ZERO out of ten.

If so-called filmmakers continue in this mind-numbingly STUPID post-millennial vein, I'm gonna abandon the medium altogether.

Since 1998 or so we've been subjected to this kind of garbage. It seems to be derived from 'Seinfeld': film devoted to recording NOTHING but images hanging from a flimsy, even non-existent 'story' lacking in effective dialogue and narrative development.

Face it, folks. Storytelling in film died in the late 1990s. All people want to see now, and all they can handle, are empty, directionless, and plainly silly contrivances like this one.

I've tried to stay contemporary, but writers, actors, and directors today in North America are simply weak and incompetent. A film like this shows how vapid both filmmaker and watcher have become. Way to go.

I saw this movie at Sundance Film Festival and again at SXSW. The place was packed! At the Sundance Film Festival,this particular show was shown at 8:30 in the morning to a packed audience! Everyone seemed to get in the spirit of the film. I just viewed it again on the Sundance Movie channel - cable T.V. I am so glad to see that the movie is finally on television! We have been waiting for it to come out on DVD for some time as well. Regarding Goliath,the cat, he was a minor addition to the plot, but the center of the main character's life during a heart wrenching break-up with his wife. The movie is worth a view!

The Zellners are filmmaking brothers from Austin, TX and they don't make conventional comedies. By this, I don't mean theirs is a cinema akin to the sort where you'd find Borat or Scott Pilgrim, I mean truly unconventional. The closest mainstream archetype I'd propose would be Steven Soderbergh when he made Schizopolis. If you watch expecting a laugh-out-loud, tidy story, then of course you'll be disappointed.

Goliath is a stark, simple story of a man who loses his cat while going through an emotionally wrenching divorce. While this scenario would likely find widespread appeal in a Hollywood comedy if handled in a broad, facile manner, The Zellner brothers craft the narrative in an unsettling slow-burn that may be as disturbing to some as it is humorous to others. So if you can appreciate a comedy that has traces of Fassbinder and the Kaurismakis as well as Mel Brooks, then maybe this one is for you.

1st watched 1/30/2012 – 5 out of 10(Dir-David Zellner): Sad, heartbreaking and sometimes funny depiction of a broken man from a divorce who tries to bring back his lost companion, a cat named Goliath, as his last piece of his life that was still there to possibly get back. This independent film was made by the Zellner brothers, who were supposedly famous for their shorts at the Sundance festival, and this was their first feature film. The movie has it's positive moments with it's tongue-in-cheek humor and the realistic portrayal of a loner(who didn't choose to be alone) – which unfortunately I can relate to. The negatives of the movie are that the star, David Zellner, as the anti-hero is not altogether likable partially due to his vengeance against a local sex offender --- whom he believes ran over his cat with his car. Then the sex offender, played by the other Zellner, is partially disabled but the main character doesn't let up on his torture upon him. Sometimes the movie is bittersweet, but also very dark in it's portrayal of an every-day man who is down on his luck. In a way I kind of feel nit-picky about his treatment of the disabled sex offender, but I just think they went to far with this thinking that it might be funny(but it wasn't). I liked the slow non-Hollywood pacing to the story(letting it unfold before your eyes instead of throwing it at you) shot by the director in a kind of home movie fashion, and would like to see another film by this duo, but I just think they should have been a little more tactful in their approach toward the sex offender. This man, with so much affection for his cat – seemed to not be able to carry that kind of affection for people in his life, and I guess that's why his marriage failed – and maybe that was the point of the movie—but this wasn't made very well, in my opinion. Nice try, and will be looking for the next – hoping this duo learned something.

I don't know what's going on half the time, Goliath is decent in its some ways. I've had the DVD from blockbuster that someone kept and I was expecting more when I decided to watch it! It's somber, poorly filmed, and there's barely a story. I'm on the same page as others with negative reviews pretty lame movie!