Goliath Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Live from SXSW: I'll Have Two Shorts and Three Andrew Bujalskis, Please
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Independent », SXSW », Festival Reports », Shorts », Cinematical Indie »
It's hard to squeeze out time to see any short films at SXSW, but I saw two last night that provided an interesting contrast. Benjamin M. Piety's Sunlit Shadows is a very good-looking romantic drama that has a languorous feeling to it. Ryan Scharoun and Jennifer Marks play a couple spending a little time together: in bed, at the breakfast table, watching TV, and so forth. He narrates first, giving his interpretation, and then the scenes repeat from the female point of view. They're a good-looking couple, and Ms. Marks captures a lazy, off-beat cadence in her narration, but the short is probably too precious for its own good. Still, I'd like to see what the people involved do next.
Sunlit Shadows felt long at 14 minutes, but was a good match for the film it preceded (The Lost Coast), as was Ed Goodman's I Slammed My D--- in the Drawer, which played before the frequently funny Registered Sex Offender. The highest praise I can offer the hilarious I Slammed My D--- in the Drawer is that it lived up to the full promise of its title and, at four minutes, may be the only film in the festival that doesn't feel too long.
Sundance Review: Goliath
Filed under: Comedy », Independent », Sundance », Theatrical Reviews », Festival Reports », Cinematical Indie »
The Zellner Brothers made their name with a series of shorts -- made on a budget, crafted with verve, full of a very American minimalism. They were shorts where the punchlines were funny, but the long, agonized pause after was what really made you laugh. In their feature-length debut, Goliath, writer-director David Zellener plays our unnamed protagonist, a fussy, perpetually upset high-tech worker facing an ugly divorce, a demotion at work and the general collapse of his life. He has one connection to the world, though -- his cat, Goliath. Goliath is there for him (and what may be more subconsciously important in his darker moments is the fact that he is there for Goliath). Goliath matters.
Goliath is missing.
And with that, things go from bad to worse with startling speed in a journey to the bottom full of the sort of comedy that springs from sincere, writhe-in-your seat discomfort. All the indignities and miseries of modern life are heaped upon our hero in Goliath -- legal troubles, humiliating career setbacks, the collapse of marriage -- and a few new ones are added like sprinkles on top: The sex offender down the street, the grim excitement of found pornography, the background hum of the server farm punctuated only by the sound of your idiot co-workers beatboxing their lunch break away. Things are not good, and Goliath being missing is not helping any.
Sundance Interview: 'Goliath' Writer-Director-Editor-Producer Team David and Nathan Zellner
Filed under: Comedy », Independent », Sundance », Podcasts », Interviews », Cinematical Indie »
After several of their shorts played Sundance to acclaim, David and Nathan Zellner make their feature-length debut at this year's festival with Goliath, playing Sundance as part of the Spectrum selection. David wrote, directed and starred in Goliath; Nathan produced, edited, and played a pivotal role on-camera. The Zellners spoke with Cinematical about classic pet movies like Old Yeller, the acting applications of used medical equipment, and what they have in common with their peers in the so-called 'mumblecore' movement. As David explains, Goliath starts with a very simple event: "It's about a man; his cat has gone missing, and that kind of sends him into a tailspin. ..."
This interview, like all of Cinematical's podcast offerings, is now available through iTunes; if you'd like, you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:
Trailer Park: This Changes Everything
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Horror », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Trailer Trash », Trailers and Clips »
Having a baby, meeting extraterrestrials, losing your cat: these are all jumping off points after which -- for good or ill -- your life is never quite the same again. This week we're looking at trailers for films that show big changes.
Doomsday
Yeah, I've got to imagine the end of the world will change everything. At the very least, you won't have to go to work tomorrow, and to hell with that car payment. When a lethal plague devastates a large section of England, the area is walled off for decades. When the plague resurfaces, a special team is dispatched inside the quarantined area to look for a cure. This is from director Neil Marshall, whose last two films -- The Descent and Dog Soldiers -- I loved. The Mad Max influence is obvious, but it also brings to mind all the Italian-made Mad Max knock-offs from the 80s, of which there were so many that they became a genre unto themselves. There's also a fair amount of Escape From New York evident here, and our heroine Rhona Mitra (pictured above) recalls Kate Beckinsale in the Underworld movies. I'm getting lots of deja vu here, with nothing really striking me as original. I'll probably see this based on Marshall's credentials, but the trailer doesn't sell me. Here's Scott's take.
Baby Mama
Tina Fey plays a successful business woman who wants a baby, and she hires a working class woman played by Amy Poehler to be her surrogate. Between Knocked Up, Juno and Waitress, it's been a big year for pregnancy comedies, and I have to wonder if Hollywood has gone to the well once too often with this one. I loved Fey and Poehler on Saturday Night Live, and Fey's 30 Rock is a riot, but this trailer isn't grabbing me. Like Doomsday, if I see this one, it will be on the basis of the reputation of the people involved and not the preview. Here's Erik's take.
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