Goliath

I saw this movie at the Sundance Film Festival with a packed audience. We all watched as a man had his life fall apart in a variety of different ways, the breaking point being the lost of his cat (hence the title). Sometimes it was extremely funny, sometimes extremely sad. The outbursts of laughter were equally matched by silent awe and quiet sadness.

It's not really about a cat, but about how people (this one man in particular) fixate on something in order to cope with what's not working around them. The divorce signing scene alone is brilliant. A challenging scene that everyone I went with talked about afterwards, a total range of emotions...

And without spoiling it, things turn from bad to worse for him and the cat. But the end has the sweetest thing I've ever seen.

I thought the filmmaker did a good job and treading a fine line between the absurdly funny, and the reality that comes w/ divorce, isolation, and lost.

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.

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 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!

Comedy and drama instant mix! I enjoyed watching it late at night after Kid-Thing by the same director.

Goliath made me laugh and almost cry at the same moment, strange new feeling! Unlike other people posting here, I really loved the longer takes, and especially the satiric signing of the divorce papers!

The scene with a "spear dance" - outstanding! The sex offender with a speaker - very creative writing. Acting is superb as well.

Highly recommended to everyone who is tired on watching all of those old people from Hollywood who will never let the new talent take them over!

In other words - Good job David!!! Great film, one of my favorites in 2016 so far!