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!
13 Reviews
Sad, heartbreaking and sometimes funny...
dwpollar4 February 2012
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.
Keeping Austin Weird
HallmarkMovieBuff24 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Because, and only because, this movie was filmed in my home town of Austin, Texas, I feel obliged to comment. I don't know the Zellners, but I am familiar with several locations seen in the film. A sign for Walnut Creek, for example, can be seen behind our lead character in the scene where he's posting his "lost cat" posters. And I could be wrong, of course, but driving scenes appear to have been taken along portions of Lamar and/or Airport Boulevards.
For a few years surrounding the making of this movie, the most popular bumper sticker around town was, "Keep Austin Weird." Having seen literally thousands of movies in my lifetime, I can honestly say that there were at least a dozen (or more) actions, objects, incidents, or events shown here that I've never before seen captured on film.
Watching this film seemed as if the Zellners had sat around brainstorming with the objective of coming up with as many weird acts they could think of to film, in order to enter their movie into a Keep Austin Weird film competition. If this film wouldn't have won such a competition, I'd like to see the one that would have.
Many of the camera shots are indescribable, and have to be seen; but here are a few unusual scenes (SPOILERS!) that I can still remember a day after having seen the film, and also having experienced mind-cleansing sleep in between. "He" here refers to our protagonist.
He watches a naked drummer copulation video while calling for his missing cat (Goliath) and eating his microwave dinner.
He lies in bed, lights a cigarette, and blows smoke into a condom. (Could this be his defiant substitute for sex with his ex, since he could not smoke in the house when they were together?)
He is required by white shirts (his is gray) to fire a low-echelon worker, and is simultaneously demoted to the fired worker's position, in a scene exhibiting the worst management practices imaginable.
Having failed to lure Goliath with the sound of his electric can opener placed on an open window sill, he attaches the can opener to a portable power pack and goes "playing" it on the open road.
He threatens his ex with a tree trimmer; then, still angry, he attacks the person and property of a sex offender the next street over whom he blames, justifiably or not, for having killed Goliath.
The sex offender uses a speaking aid (a vibrator held to his larynx.)
My one complaint with the film is that with all the talented musicians here in "The Live Music Capital of the World," one would think they could have found a better voice to sing over the closing credits.
For a few years surrounding the making of this movie, the most popular bumper sticker around town was, "Keep Austin Weird." Having seen literally thousands of movies in my lifetime, I can honestly say that there were at least a dozen (or more) actions, objects, incidents, or events shown here that I've never before seen captured on film.
Watching this film seemed as if the Zellners had sat around brainstorming with the objective of coming up with as many weird acts they could think of to film, in order to enter their movie into a Keep Austin Weird film competition. If this film wouldn't have won such a competition, I'd like to see the one that would have.
Many of the camera shots are indescribable, and have to be seen; but here are a few unusual scenes (SPOILERS!) that I can still remember a day after having seen the film, and also having experienced mind-cleansing sleep in between. "He" here refers to our protagonist.
He watches a naked drummer copulation video while calling for his missing cat (Goliath) and eating his microwave dinner.
He lies in bed, lights a cigarette, and blows smoke into a condom. (Could this be his defiant substitute for sex with his ex, since he could not smoke in the house when they were together?)
He is required by white shirts (his is gray) to fire a low-echelon worker, and is simultaneously demoted to the fired worker's position, in a scene exhibiting the worst management practices imaginable.
Having failed to lure Goliath with the sound of his electric can opener placed on an open window sill, he attaches the can opener to a portable power pack and goes "playing" it on the open road.
He threatens his ex with a tree trimmer; then, still angry, he attacks the person and property of a sex offender the next street over whom he blames, justifiably or not, for having killed Goliath.
The sex offender uses a speaking aid (a vibrator held to his larynx.)
My one complaint with the film is that with all the talented musicians here in "The Live Music Capital of the World," one would think they could have found a better voice to sing over the closing credits.
We walked out
RosemaryDetweiler26 January 2008
We would have given it 2 stars, but the cat was cute. Would be a great short film if they edited it down to about 30 minutes. The filmmakers are know for their short films, and this time they made a full length film by taking a good short film and dragging out the scenes forever. Like the interminable scene of watching the couple sign their divorce papers. That should have lasted about 10 seconds. Or the scene where the guy eats his microwaved TV dinner. We would have gotten the point in a matter of moments. We don't need to watch him eat the whole thing. Also, the acting was just not that great. From the Sundance synopsis, I was expecting a comedy, but it just wasn't that funny.
Worst Excuse for a Movie...Ever...
asbrand114 January 2011
If I could rate this with negative stars, I would.
This has got to be the hands down worst movie I have ever been subjected to. I literally was getting a headache while watching this piece of crap.
"Manos - The Hands of Fate" is an Oscar winner compared to this horrible film.
Almost half the film is the main character wandering around saying "kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty..." about a thousand times. Scenes go ON, and ON, and ON forever. I mean really...an uncut, 10 minute long scene of the main character and his ex-wife signing documents? Gaaaaaah...
That isn't art. That is pure crap.
I seriously wonder about people who actually enjoyed this horrible, horrible waste of film.
This has got to be the hands down worst movie I have ever been subjected to. I literally was getting a headache while watching this piece of crap.
"Manos - The Hands of Fate" is an Oscar winner compared to this horrible film.
Almost half the film is the main character wandering around saying "kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty..." about a thousand times. Scenes go ON, and ON, and ON forever. I mean really...an uncut, 10 minute long scene of the main character and his ex-wife signing documents? Gaaaaaah...
That isn't art. That is pure crap.
I seriously wonder about people who actually enjoyed this horrible, horrible waste of film.
Not worth your time
girlocelot24 August 2009
I love movies. I love cats. I love off-beat quirky weird movies. I will try almost anything once.
This film - turned it on, watched for 2 mins, flipped through the scenes & put it back in its case.
Why? Low production values: (not a killer category always) not great in this flick. Amateurish acting: ditto. Pointless POV: yes, really bad. & I have a strong stomach & like tough action movies. The stuff in this one was cheap,crappy "humor" - not funny, not original, not worth describing. Unappealing lead: oh, yeah, in every way.
Cat? not around.
Do not bother!
This film - turned it on, watched for 2 mins, flipped through the scenes & put it back in its case.
Why? Low production values: (not a killer category always) not great in this flick. Amateurish acting: ditto. Pointless POV: yes, really bad. & I have a strong stomach & like tough action movies. The stuff in this one was cheap,crappy "humor" - not funny, not original, not worth describing. Unappealing lead: oh, yeah, in every way.
Cat? not around.
Do not bother!
Not art, not film, not anything at all except an excuse
kustom13522 December 2011
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.
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.
wonderfully strange and sublime
catch-1831 January 2008
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.
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.
Not worth anyones time.....
RangerDaleXp19 January 2012
Warning: Spoilers
First off, I decided to watch this movie because the information on DTV caught my interest about a guy and his cat. This movie was absolutely horrible right down to the acting and the story plot. Only the very last 3 or so minutes were worth watching and that was done by the best actor of the show. I cannot believe I wasted 80 minutes of my time and I am sure glad I did not pay good money to see it.
I love cats but I find that the review level of around 5.4 on the IMDb site gives this show way to much credit. It should be around 2.1 instead. If you feel the need to watch it, then don't pay for it and try to see it on Sat or cable like I did ..
I love cats but I find that the review level of around 5.4 on the IMDb site gives this show way to much credit. It should be around 2.1 instead. If you feel the need to watch it, then don't pay for it and try to see it on Sat or cable like I did ..
absolutely great comic movie
ljz0014 September 2009
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!
Only if you can handle the "odd" in odd charm
billtobin1030 November 2010
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.
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.
Amazing film
LoungeV17 March 2016
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!
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!
Intensely quirky, highly personal and intimate, slightly boring...
lemon_magic8 November 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Interesting portrait of a schlemiel whose life has gone sour and pointless. The poor guy - his wife is divorcing him, apparently for cheating on her (his defense? 'It was only two fingers!!!"), he's been demoted at work, and worst of all, his cat has gone missing...
What's interesting about this film, as my friend who played it for me pointed out, is the attention to detail and the kind of details that are revealed. Snippets of cell phone conversations and porn sites and microwave dinners and other completely normal but somehow distressing visual and audio cues create an intimate feel for a character that you don't especially want to be intimate with. It's not that he's a bad guy, he's just sort of unlikeable and pathetic.
And he misses his cat. The search for the cat provides the motor for the 1st half of the movie as the protagonist staples posters to telephone poles and runs an electric can opener from a battery pack all over his town in the hope that his cat will hear it and come running.
"Goliath" has an abundance of slow, static boring scenes, that's for sure, but that seems to me to be the point. The movie is very effective in the way it catches the numbness, the tedium, the disconnect between the nameless protagonist and the world around him. The guy is so wrapped up in his preoccupied misery that you wonder if anything will ever rescue him, especially when (spoiler alert)...
...he finds his runaway cat run over on the freeway.
(end spoiler).
There is a sweet,semi-happy ending that rescues the film from being a total downer. There is an odd, off-kilter soundtrack with sparse, personal songs with lyrics that leave you going, "What???"
So anyway, I'm glad I saw it, but your mileage may vary.
What's interesting about this film, as my friend who played it for me pointed out, is the attention to detail and the kind of details that are revealed. Snippets of cell phone conversations and porn sites and microwave dinners and other completely normal but somehow distressing visual and audio cues create an intimate feel for a character that you don't especially want to be intimate with. It's not that he's a bad guy, he's just sort of unlikeable and pathetic.
And he misses his cat. The search for the cat provides the motor for the 1st half of the movie as the protagonist staples posters to telephone poles and runs an electric can opener from a battery pack all over his town in the hope that his cat will hear it and come running.
"Goliath" has an abundance of slow, static boring scenes, that's for sure, but that seems to me to be the point. The movie is very effective in the way it catches the numbness, the tedium, the disconnect between the nameless protagonist and the world around him. The guy is so wrapped up in his preoccupied misery that you wonder if anything will ever rescue him, especially when (spoiler alert)...
...he finds his runaway cat run over on the freeway.
(end spoiler).
There is a sweet,semi-happy ending that rescues the film from being a total downer. There is an odd, off-kilter soundtrack with sparse, personal songs with lyrics that leave you going, "What???"
So anyway, I'm glad I saw it, but your mileage may vary.
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